Rappers Skengdo and AM breached injunction by performing drill music
PATwo rappers have been given suspended sentences for performing drill music which incited violence against rival gang members.
Skengdo, real name Terrell Doyley, and AM, real name Joshua Malinga, pleaded guilty to breaching a gang injunction at Croydon County Court, police say.
The injunction was made against the pair last year because they were members of a gang in south London.
They were sentenced to nine months in jail suspended for two years.
The Metropolitan Police says Skengdo and AM, both 21, breached an interim gang injunction which was made in August last year.
"It was breached when they performed drill music that incited and encouraged violence against rival gang members and then posted it on social media," it said in a statement.
Their manager TK told the Press Association the musicians were not involved in gang violence.
He said they pleaded guilty after a video of one of their live performances was uploaded to the internet without their knowledge.
ReutersThe interim injunction was made against the rappers because they were members of a gang in Lambeth, south London - and were linked to rising violence in the borough, police said on Friday.
The injunction was brought into full force during hearings held on 10 and 14 January. It will last for two years.
Detective Inspector Luke Williams, of Lambeth and Southwark's Gangs Unit, said: "I am pleased with the sentences passed in these cases which reflect that the police and courts are unwilling to accept behaviour leading to serious violence.
"The court found that violence in drill music can, and did in this case, amount to gang-related violence."
TK, the director of Finesse Foreva, said the last time either of the rappers "might have had a run-ins with the law was when they were 16 and 17".
He said at a hearing in January, police had tried to link Skengdo and AM to the history of crime in Brixton - which is in the Lambeth borough.
"They didn't find nothing on them in terms of violence because they don't have nothing on them."
He added: "Why the Met's probably done that is because they want to affect their lives, scare big venue owners off."
Skengdo and AM have performed at Reading and Leeds festivals and have appeared on 1Xtra.
They performed on Kenny Allstar's 1Xtra show on 11 January - he described them as "one of the hottest duos in UK drill music".
Drill music came under the spotlight last year when the Met's top police officer linked it to an increase in violence in London.