The Met gets into Grime

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Gun crime is a real issue in London. The most alarming fact is the speed that young people are moving from simple truancy through to gun crime.

The message had to reach 11-16-year-old black youths in some of London’s most dangerous boroughs. And to get them to think it would have to have real credibility.

The Metropolitan Police teamed up a grime band to harness its blend of MCs, aggressive rapping and brutal beats as weapon in the war against guns.

It worked with UK band Roll Deep to create a real piece of content, a brand new anti-gun track and the supporting three-minute video.

Badman was seeded into underground clubs before being properly launched with high-profile musical partners. Key media brands such as Kiss, Choice and RWD helped create hubs where the content could be downloaded – including a two-minute making of video. Involvement was stimulated via a competition to write a new verse for the song.

Roll Deep also spoke at 10 inner city schools and hosted a live Q&A on Choice FM.

The video was picked up by MTV Base and hit No 2 in the Channel U video charts. The video was played more than 75,000 times on YouTube, more than 50,000 times on MySpace and more than 140 times via Kiss and Choice.

Information pages for Operation Trident on the radio stations hit 12,500 visits and Trident’s own website saw traffic up more than 1,000%.

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