‘Trapped in the trap’: Exploring Music Therapists’ clinical engagement with the current discourse around UK Drill

Abstract

This article investigates Music Therapists’ experience and understanding of UK Drill. As a recently emerged sub-genre of Rap, its graphic lyrics have been linked to increases in gang activity and violent crime in the United Kingdom, while simultaneously voicing the experiences of marginalised black, working-class people. This has fuelled wider debate around censorship and diversity, tensions within which are explored in this article in a review of the literature on Rap and music therapy. The review suggests that while the therapeutic use of UK Drill may be contraindicated, to exclude the genre from music therapy is problematic from a socio-political perspective. This debate is then explored through semi-structured interviews with two white Music Therapists with experience of working with young people who want to use UK Drill in their music therapy sessions. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three themes are discussed: research participants’ descriptions of their perception of the therapeutic components of UK Drill, their perspectives on the psychosocial context of UK Drill and their negotiating questions of identity when working with UK Drill. Findings suggested a complex role for UK Drill in music therapy. While the ethical and clinical necessity of not excluding UK Drill from sessions was established, so were a number of challenges posed for Music Therapists looking to integrate it into their practice. Research participants were also found to be emotionally desensitised to UK Drill’s graphic lyrics. This is argued to represent an underlying anxiety towards UK Drill’s intense emotional expression, which was further suggested by the absence of open consideration towards clients’ racial identities. The findings are considered in the context of wider diversity issues within the profession. They also signal the need for a more socially cognisant music therapy practice, with greater open consideration paid towards the client’s racial identity by white Music Therapists.