Groundworks 2020 Cypher is the perfect start of the year for the Drill scene.

With Drill constantly being demonised for its negatives Groundworks did a great job of showing the flip side of that with their 2020 cypher. Not only did they bring together some of the biggest names in the genre they also managed to capture the energy of a set all without any problems. The lineup had big draw names like Unknown T, M1llionz and Digga D alongside staple names of the genre like V9, KO, Teeway and Trapx10. M1llionz‘ #TPM label mates as well as some of the #98s came through and left big impressions that set a standard of what people should expect from them moving forward.

The full line-up is a long one with Digga D, Teeway, Trapx10, M1llionz, Tugz, Tallerz, M Woo, SkengTrapMob, Unknown T, KO, Billy Billions, V9, DA, Mazza, Alchubbino and Jimmy as well as being hosted by Denz & Renz. With that artist line-up and how young they all are being mixed with ego and the lifestyle they’re from, if this was a live show police would cancel it immediately claiming it would turn violent. Yet it was the exact opposite there was a unity in the room despite it seeming like some of the artists didn’t know each other personally. It shows that despite the controversial subject matter the artists take their role seriously as musicians and will deliver just the same as artists of any other genre.

All in all the Groundworks 2020 Cypher delivered exactly the way it needed to. It showcased Drill talent in a way we hadn’t seen before and showed the doubters why the genre should be respected. One of the highlights was Digga D‘s love of the genre which was on show clearly. He would often double up other artists vocals or even finished their lyrics for them. Digga wasn’t the only one to do this though but he was the one who seemed to know the most lyrics by other artists. I think the two real surprise standouts were DA and Billy Billions with the bigger names largely just delivering as expected. This isn’t to say the rest didn’t do a great job, but those two, in particular, made their presence felt every time they got the mic.

Hopefully, this is just the start of a tradition from Groundworks and it will be interesting to see what content they come out with next.