A London drill rapper who was killed in a knife attack on Wednesday night recently admitted that the genre was contributing to violence in the capital.

Moscow17 rapper Incognito, whose real name is believed to be Siddique Kamara, was stabbed to death in Warham Street in Camberwell in an incident which saw two other people taken to hospital by air ambulance.

Two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested close to the scene on suspicion of murder, Scotland Yard said.

The attack happened in the same street where 17-year-old Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton – also a member of the collective – was found with a fatal gunshot wound in May.

The group’s tracks have received hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Some featured references to other groups in the capital, including long-running rivals Zone 2 from Peckham.

In one track, Moscow17 told Zone 2 to “check the scoreboard”, while another asked “How you gonna make it even?”.

A Zone 2 lyric in response told their rivals they would “roll up and burst them”.

Earlier this year, Kamara and another member of Moscow17 were cleared at the Old Bailey of murdering teenager Abdirahman Mohamed, a brother of a member of Zone 2.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has called on social media platforms such as YouTube to take down videos that glamorised violence, and, in an interview with Link Up TV earlier this year, Incognito spoke about the effect of drill music on crime in the capital.

“You see with the crime that’s happening right now, music does influence it. You’ve got to put your hands up and say drill music does influence it,” he said.

“But knife crime and gun crime has been going on way before drill music, so if you want to talk about 10 years, 20 years, people were still getting cheffed up (attacked with knifes).”

He added: “There (are) many ways to solve it – you can bring out youth clubs, you can bring out many other things, invest money in other things to help the community, but you don’t want to do that – you just want to use an excuse with drill music.”

At the time of Rhyhiem’s death, his mother, Pretana Morgan, called for a halt to the wave of violence in the capital.

Police officers
Moscow17 rapper Incognito was killed and two others injured in the stabbing (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

She said: “Let my son be the last and be an example to everyone. Just let it stop. What must be, must be.”

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Leonard, who is leading the latest investigation, said: “Another young man has tragically and needlessly lost his life through an act of violence.

“We are keeping an open mind about the positive motive for this attack, but at this early stage one line of enquiry is this being gang-related.

“I’d like to reassure the community that we have made two arrests and we are working around the clock to establish what happened and bring those responsible to justice.

“However, we cannot do this alone and I’d appeal to any witnesses or anyone with information to get in touch with us as a matter of urgency.”

Speaking outside the family home on John Ruskin Street, close to the scene of the crime, the victim’s father Lamin Kama, said: “Our family are in a lot of distress at the moment.”

He declined to comment further, saying only that Siddique had three brothers.

The victim was just a few metres from the flats his family live in when he was killed.

A forensic tent was still in place at midday on Thursday at the spot where Siddique fell.

A neighbour, who gave his name only as Andy, said: “My dog was going crazy and when I looked out there was this guy lying on the floor.”

He said he did not see his injuries clearly, but “there was blood”.

“He must have been in his 20s. I didn’t hear anything but I heard the helicopter and all the police cars. The road was all taped off.”

He continued: “It’s getting really rough around here. I’ve lived here on and off for about 15 years. There was a shooting a few months ago”.

Another neighbour,Sidney Virgo, 80, said: “I knew this was going to happen. As soon as kids start gathering that’s when something like this happens.”

He said his neighbour’s son had been seriously stabbed on the estate just over a week ago.