As a key genre within the urban music economy, grime music has a national and global presence. In the YouTube era, young people film music videos and broadcast them online.

Legislation and policies ostensibly created as a means to maintain public safety combine to create methods to control the behaviour of young people. The production and circulation of urban music videos, therefore, become a contested activity. The racial mechanics of this gaze mean that for urban black youth, group endeavours are often criminalized as ‘gang activity’.

Drawing on a 2014 Twitter profile as its starting point, this article examines the application of public safety legislation and policies in an East London borough. It reflects on how a ‘disciplinary process’ allows for local authorities, the metropolitan police and the judiciary to pin down and organize the movements of urban music practitioners in specific and particular ways.