
Gangs, Drill and Prayer
South London's drill scene has a new offshoot: gospel drill, rap built on the same aggressive beats and delivery as the drill music tied to the capital's gang violence, but rewritten as testimony and outreach. The film follows the pastors, ex-gang members, and young rappers turning the sound of the street into a tool for reaching kids who won't set foot in a church but will listen to a track that sounds like the ones playing in their estate. Interviews trace how some of these men moved from actual gang life, sometimes with convictions or lost friends behind them, into writing verses about faith instead of violence, performing in the same neighborhoods where they once carried knives. The tension the film sits inside is obvious: can a genre built to sound threatening actually pull someone out of danger, or does it just repackage the same aesthetic? Studio sessions, street scenes, and church gatherings in South London give the argument its texture, letting the rappers and preachers make the case in their own words.