American gun violence and drill rap
DR | 25min
Postproduction script

 

00’03 LAWANDA ADAMS, PINKYS GRANDMOTHER: It’s a memorial tree we do it for her every month - my granddaughter Pinky…Jasslyn Adams, to keep her in our hearts. She was so full of life - a laughing child. This is her as a baby - her as 3-4 years old. And the most recent one just before she was killed…

Newsreporter: A 7 year old girl is dead - shot and killed at a McDonald on Chicago’s west side

Newsreporter: ……. Jasslyn was hit multiple times around 4.15 Sunday afternoon.

00’35 JONTAE ADAMS, PINKYS FATHER: we were supposed to have like a daddy daughter day and I was supposed to bring her over here. but we never made it over here. We pulled in that way. So me and my baby we talking about the music she's playing on my iPhone. I see two guys get out, they had masks on and stuff like that. And I knew what it was like. I mean, the guns they pulled out was AK47. My adrenaline was pumping. I was trying to protect my baby. So I didn't even hear 50 gunshots - cause her screaming ‘Daddy’ was louder than anything. All I was focused on was just trying to get her out of the situation alive. 

01’12 LAWANDA ADAMS, PINKYS GRANDMOTHER: 30 minutes after we got to the hospital they told us she had passed. She had gotten shot several times. Where I don’t know - because I did not want to know.

[News reports]

01’39 Lawanda: They want respect for being a killer. I guess that’s the most popular thing to have on your resume as a gang banger. I was brought up with respect, to respect your elders. See that?

Interviewer: Do you feel safe?

Lawanda: No, I don’t. I have to pray every morning before I walk out the door.

02’10 VO: We are heading into a world of violence and killings. Crime has always been part of life here – but gangs are now fighting more fiercely than ever.

Gang member: Today in Chicago you need a gun because it could be anybody getting killed not just gang bangers. It could be you, it could be me…

[News reports]

02’44 VO:  With the pandemic increased the fear of violent attacks. Sales of arms went up by 40 percent. Number of shootings on the streets have risen – on freeways gang members are chasing one another. 

[News reports]

03’08 VO: Chicago is one of the cities facing many shootings, and a new phenomenon is on the rise. On videos, gang members brag with violence and murders committed. The goal is to attract as many clicks on YouTube as possible.

03’29 VO: 22 year old Dillon James was raised here. Today, he makes a living as a producer of the so called “drill videos”.

03’39 DILLON JAMES, DJAY FILM: Alright, everybody come down we’re gonna do a scene down here. So for this scene this is the scene for the blick [gun], so if you don’t want your faces in it with the blicks, cover up, you feel me? There's no place like Chicago. Like I promise you. There's not.

[Rapping]

 04’08 Dillon: We can't tell the story of what’s going on out here without the guns and the drugs and all that, you know. The more of that stuff that we include in the video, the more viewers it's going to get. I mean, so that's, that's another reason why, uh, those things are included in videos.

04’38 Reporter [Lillian] to camera: It is absurd. They are flashing guns and drugs at daylight and seem to be proud of it.

[Rapping]

04’57 Dillon: What’s up my boy?

Dillon interview: In my whole life I have lost 25 to 30 friends to gun violence.

Dillon to friend: Is that shit decent? I just grabbed that for 140 earlier.

Dillon interview: Music videos is my passion. It's something I feel I am talented at,  I see that as the way to, you know, really get out of this lifestyle

05’30 VO: In areas of great poverty, YouTube is a place to generate some income.

05’36 Dillon: You’ll get a monthly check. So like I monetise for example. I'm not like a super popular like music video director or anything that has like millions upon millions of views, you know? So it's like, I'm not making enough to really be stable. This one got almost 60,000 views on YouTube.

06’03 VO: They are watching videos that Dillon filmed for their friend, the rapper Geeski – who was starting to get popular on YouTube.

06’14 Dillon:  He passed this here May 1st. So, you know, it's still fresh. He was killed.

Deandre: He was killed by gun violence. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Reporter [Lillian]: How old was he?

Dillon: He just turned 20

[Footage of music video ‘Honey K’]

06’41 Dillon:  I actually edited this video, with him at his house the whole time I’m editing it he's coaching me on like what to change and what effect to put in. That video literally came out exactly how he envisioned it. I never thought it would be Geeski. Out of everybody, not Geeski. I was ready for us to go crazy. It hurt the heart.

Reporter [Lillian]: Do you know who killed him, Dillon?

Dillon: Yeah… can’t really talk about it - you feel me.

Lillian: Another gang?

Dillon: Yeah.

07’42 Reporter to Jontae: This is your mother’s house?

Jontae: Yeah, my mom and my grandma.

07’45 VO: Dillon has also produced/filmed videos for Pinkys father Jontae.

07’51 JONTAE ADAMS, PINKY’S FATHER: She used to just be like searching me on YouTube. And like, she knew my, all my raps word for word though. Like she's my biggest supporter. Like the video I just showed you on her rapping in the car. Like she just thought she, she was like a female version of me.

[Video of Pinky rapping]

08’09 VO: Jontae’s videos with a message to rivals: They are weak, they are not killers.

[Jontae’s video]

08’20 Jontae: My baby was my biggest fan. She's in all my YouTube comments.

Lillian: She watched your videos?

Jontae: Yeah. My baby love my videos. She was my biggest fan. Honestly.

Lillian: So she watched some of these videos you are not so proud of today?

Jontae: Yeah probably. I don’t think she really understood. That's her dancing, rapping my music.

08’52 VO: Before the killing of his daughter, Tilla shared a video of friends peeing/pissing on a rivals grave.

09’05 Lillian to Jontae: These friends of yours, did they do it to support you? Or what, why did they do it?

Jontae: I mean, that's, that's this drill rap is all about. People will do anything to go viral. You know what I'm saying? So, and I actually, I sent the video. I take responsibility for that, but I didn't even record the video. Making jokes about the dead, making fun of the dead. Like it's all disrespectful. Is it a reason to kill somebody? No. That's not a reason to justify killing a child.

09’31 Lawanda: It was Facebook stuff — provoking each other - the ones who killed her was 19 and 20 and 21.

[News reports]

09’45 VO: The bullets killing Pinky in the car were intended for her father.

09’52 Lawanda: He blames himself a whole lot - he said he was just being a good daddy he says - taking his daughter to McDonalds - but when you live that type of life - everybody at risk.

10’11 Jontae: The one from my daughter is right here. This was a nine-millimeter shell, nine shell. This all plates. I basically don’t have an elbow. I’ve got ten bullet holes in my body from… running the streets.

10’37 VO: Crime rates are extremely high in areas like this. On average, 26 Americans are shot dead every day. 14 percent of the population is black. But their share of killing statistics is 68 percent.

10’55 MARK BUSLIK, DISTRICT CHIEF, CHICAGO POLICE: The city is divided into 22 districts - this is one of these 22 districts. The problem is guns. And the issue of how easy it is to get a gun, um and then use it.

11’15 Lillian to Mark: So you’ve probably been out to too many shootings yourself.

Mark: Yes more than I would ever have thought.

11’23 VO: Gang members are seldomly held responsible. The police only solves few of the murders committed in black areas.

11’31 Mark interview: If shoot my neighbor, it's going to be pretty easy to solve their crime. But if I drive by and shoot somebody who I don't even know, and who doesn't know me, it's far more difficult to solve the crime. That's why the clearance rates have gone down dramatically because the nature of homicide has changed. So this is one of the SDSE’s. They will monitor what’s going on. Around 2019 we started to see the violence less about just gang conflict. It became clear to the police that this was being driven by social media. The shootings have become diffused they've spread out. We've had an increase in shootings on our expressway system, um, because the they're seeing people that they want to shoot who are traveling and not just on the expressways, but in other, uh, uh, major streets.

12’43 ‘WHOODI’: Its kill or be killed. You gotta stay dangerous out here.

Lillian to ‘Whoodi’: These drilling rap videos, you taunting each other, doesn't that enforce that circle of violence?

‘Whoodi’: Yeah it does. You know, that's the point of why certain people do that. It’s really a never ending cycle - if you shoot one of my people - I’ll shoot one of yours. Its back and forth. It really never ends.

Dillon: Have you thought of some scenes?

Man: I know I want some shit up from under there, whatever that shit’s called.

Dillon: I don’t want any problems with this big ass expensive camera walking around.

Man: I got you with my life bro

Dillon: I know - but bullets got no name, gang…..

13’27 VO: It is videos that are killing them – but they see them as necessary. 

[Rapping]

13’42 ‘Whoodi’: It's like therapy for them. You know what I'm sayin? It’s our diary.. telling what we going through.

14’01 VO: Traces of the past are evident here – traces to a US that literally was split in black and white. Back to slavery with blacks subject to white. Chicago is still one of the most race divided cities in America.

14’22 RICHARD WALLACE, founder of EQITY AND TRANSFORMATION CHICAGO: Racism in 2021 doesn't look like it did in the past. We're not going to see white's only water fountains, but what we see is a very complex system.

14’32 VO: Richard Wallace tries to help young black men in poor areas with drugs and crime.

14’42 Richard: They price people into segregation. Where you are there are no jobs. Where you are the per capita incomes are extremely low, right. Where you are the school system is broken. 

14’54 Richard to man: What’s up black brother.. Huh. I ain't got, no, I…

15’10 VO: Factories once securing job opportunities have been closed or moved elsewhere. There is a world apart from black to white areas in Chicaco – from Westside to wealthy Lincoln Park.

15’24 Richard: The difference between here and there is that folks in Lincoln park have median household income is around $83,000 average per capita income, 83,000 average per capita income here is 11,000 unemployment rate is off the chain here, Lincoln park, you have a very low unemployment rate.

Richard to man: What does it look like trying to find a job, huh?

Man: Um, basically, I mean, having a background kind of stopped it.

Richard: Exactly. He said by having a background, it prevents them from getting a legit job. And so a lot of our guys ended up back in the streets because the system forces them back in the street.

16’08 VO: The other world – the white part of the city – is evident to Dillons friends.

16’15 Deandre: It's so crazy. Even their food, their food different. They got more healthier foods out there. You feel me? It's not a liquor store on every fuckng corner. You feel me with more gyms and things. That'll help your body help your mind. They have real high school, like the high school you see on the movies.

Dillon: The way out is the music or the way out is sports. You know that, that's what people see as the way out, because education just isn't in the picture.

Deandre: The school system aint shit. So you really not getting the opportunity to go further in life and all around you is you see drunk people. You seen people who do drugs, you see the game bangers in the hood. You feel me?

17’03 VO: They all dream of getting rich and becoming wealthy.

17’10 Man: I wanted to be rich and put diamond in my teeth. That's all I want to put diamond in my teeth and be rich.

Lillian: What about the rest of you. What were your dreams?

Man: I thought I was going to be a basketball player. I was called tall, but then I got shot….

Man: I thought I was gonna play in the NFL yeah.

Man: My dream? Drug lord.

17’29 VO: But they have all ended up in streets full of crime – hoping to make a hit on YouTube.

17’34 ‘CB’ to Lillian: Can I ask you: What would you do if you coming home… You are 12. Your mama and your daddy getting high. You ain't got no money. They ain't, they ain't give you a little food. You turned to the streets.

‘Whoodi’: Thats why people turn to the streets - they look at it as family - because the street treat you better than the motherfuckers at home.

18’01 Richard: They focus on policing as a solution to everything. No place for kids to hang out. No nothing. You gonna see that there's more dog parks in Wicker park than there are children's park parks here. That's a fact, get that on camera.

18’28 VO: Mark Buslik has been employed by the police for more than 40 years and knows - in these areas - the distrust of the police is great.

18’37 Mark: We need the police. The problem is that the communities also need other things. And we have to look at that.

18’46 VO: And he personally understands how a history with race division has created a black and a white reality.

18’56 Mark: I'll tell you a story that I tell people. It's not one I'm proud of. In 1958, my parents, bought their first home. And it was in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. Many years later, my father showed me the sales contract for that home. And there was a provision in that contract that they would, they promised not to sell to Negroes, not to sell to black people. This wasn't 1858. This wasn't 1938. This was 1958. That’s systemic racism. And it's that kind of anti-diversity that, that has caused tremendous economic disadvantage in communities, as well as social disadvantage.

19’49 Dillon to Jontae: Yeah man I got a lot of stuff coming. I’m getting booked like crazy recently.

19’56 Jontae interview: Drill music affected the culture, like, like bad, like real, real, real bad.

20’01 VO: Jontae is now trying to close the door on Drill rap – and his past as a criminal gang member.

 20’07 Jontae: Rap used to be like a, a slightly spiritual thing. But now it's like the streets transitioned to rap. They really street dudes like right off the bat, everybody coming right from the street. I never would have thought I’d have a daughter lost to gun violence. So it definitely traumatizing, but it was like the ultimate wake up call for me. 

20’27 VO: Jontae is now producing new and different music – dedicated to his daughter.

[Jontae singing]

20’40 Jontae: Sometimes I feel I gotta throw up like seeing my daughter on the board, but then I prayed and stuff like that. But her cousins, her, she had cousins. Like we know who they hung with everyday the same age who don't understand, but kind of understand like they be crying and stuff like that. So that type of stuff reminds me of like how bad this affected everybody.

21’05 Pinky’s cousin: I thought it wasn’t real. I was scared to go to sleep. I wish she could come back.

Other cousin: Same.

21’17 VO: On Pinky’s memorial tree a new picture is added– a girl named Serenity.

Lillian to Lawanda: Such a pretty girl.

Lawanda: Yeah, she was killed in a car, seven as well, in the car with her father. It’s a similar story, so I just put her on the tree with my granddaughter. It’s too much with these kids getting killed, can’t even play outside.

21’41 Jontae: Most kids looking up to nothing but rappers and basketball player, but you gotta think about what rappers are rapping about and rapping about they promoting gun violence, sipping lane, popping Xanax, stuff like that, and doing drills and stuff, which is encouraging a lot of kids to actually want to grow up to be killers.

22’03 VO: Here – next generation is following the production of drill videos.

22’10 Lillian to Dreng: I’ve noticed that you’ve been watching them over there. You liked them, the videos? Why?

DRENG, 8 YEARS OLD: I watch them on YouTube.

Lillian: You watch them on YouTube? You give them likes, thumbs up. Do you get scared when you see the guns?

Dreng: No, my uncle’s got guns.

Lillian: I get scared when I see the guns, I think they’re pretty scary.

 

22’48 Dillon:  When you come from nothing, you look up to people that have made something of themselves. And when you see guys like that out here with money, you think they made something of themselves.

Lillian: Even if they are criminals?

Dillon: Yeah it doesn’t matter. We view the police as criminals – so what’s the difference?

23’14 VO: Dillon is done filming today’s scene – and now has to edit another video for social media.

23’21 Lillian to Dillon: Do you feel responsible for that violence? When you do videos bragging about shooting, killing.

Dillon: No, because I'm not doing it. I'm just bringing it to life. I don't feel like I'm to blame at all or anything like that. I'm just doing my job.

23’49 Jontae: Yeah I feel responsible. I regret, I regret putting her in the car. Like, because know I'm seeing that the streets and father and, and parents and don't mix like there's no really. And you can't do that at all.

24’03 Dillon: In Chicago, it's like with everything that goes on here. If you can make it in Chicago. You can make it anywhere.

Lillian: If you live

Dillon: Yeah… If you live…

[Music: Live or die in Chicago]