To be truthful: at first, I was a fan of Trap Lore Ross’ work. Stumbling across a video assessing the rise and fall of Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, the young YouTuber from Bognor Regis appeared refreshing. With detailed analysis and timely humour, he put a new spin on an old story and, from there, I followed his videos on the beef between Pusha T and Drake, the “collapse” of The Joe Budden Podcast and even the UK rap and grime scenes pulling up with Kanye West to the 2015 Brit Awards. But as I write this and scroll through his YouTube channel, the red flags were evident from the start.

Over time, Trap Lore Ross (real name: Charles Ross) has chosen to speak on more controversial topics in both UK and US rap, those that often involve physical, legal or metaphorical beef—or all the above. As his fanbase grew, he doubled down, pivoting to what he is now exclusively known for: ‘reports’ on violence and gang warfare involving rappers from all over the world, which often spill into the music. Whether it’s London, New York, Chicago or Australia, he channels his energies into in-depth timelines of murders, diss tracks and violent events that take his videos away from analytical to straight up sensationalist, provoking all shades of reactions.

Ross’ videos on the UK rap scene are particularly puzzling—one of which, titled The Deadly Gang War Behind Central Cee, attempts to expose the West London rapper as a fraud, an internet gangster with no real street credentials. That currently sits at 1.1 million YouTube views at the time of writing. Meanwhile, his video on the street beef between North London’s OFB and N9—bases for Headie One and Tion Wayne, respectively—has 3.3 million views. So, it’s clear Ross’ virality has stemmed almost solely off the pain of others, and the street politics that can unfortunately spill over into bloodshed. It’s brought him to a level of relevance, where he can now rub shoulders with another controversial commentator in DJ Akademiks, and think it’s cool to refer to a rapper like Digga D as a “demon” and “the biggest gangster in West London.” Or double down on calling Cench fake.

Which goes back to the original point. Though he calls himself a ‘hip-hop historian’, his videos and stories rarely celebrate the positives of the culture, rather magnifying the sensationalist aspects that will bring him views and infamy. It’s no different to his buddy Akademiks’ infamous War On Chiraq series making light of Chicago’s crime wave for which he was spectacularly pulled on by Chicago rapper Vic Mensa a few years back. When it comes to the UK scene, Ross has no interest in reporting on the music or ecosystem that we’ve been building for over 25 years, only in passing reference to emphasise a timeline of whatever gang war he’s talking about at the time. It shows an obvious, and maybe blatant, disconnect from the rappers and scene he’s profiting from. He exploits the music, people and stories he talks about—point blank period.

You could argue that it’s not that deep, that he’s simply reporting the facts of a situation and that these rappers should bear responsibility for their actions. But the act of reporting them, and the success Ross has seen as a result, has no value. Not only are they inaccurate—as UK content creator Cee Valentina pointed out, analysing that his own Reddit fanbase finds flaws in the ‘factual’ statements he makes—they’re destructive, too. When you report on these rappers’ alleged or factual affiliations and the violence and trauma these have brought about, that does nothing for their careers. It doesn’t represent the true nature of the culture over here; in fact, it takes away from the richness and nuances that make us so great.

Trap Lore Ross doesn’t prop up the people involved, nor does he stimulate the scene in any meaningful way. He hit a lick for himself, and himself only—a carrot he can wave around when he’s chilling with DJ Akademiks and 6ix9ine, who fundamentally don’t respect what we’ve built over here. Rather than trying to educate those unfamiliar, like Akademiks and 6ix9ine, he stands gleefully while they continue to disrespect our talent. He plays into their hands for their approval, at our expense. He spews out worrying tropes and stereotypes that are becoming more dangerous by the day, and he’s seemingly enjoying it. Now, other onlookers looking to follow in his footsteps are likely to employ the same tactics, further diluting the concept of genuine reporting on the scene. It will become even more of a rat race for views, exposure and clicks, rather than putting out content for the love of the culture.

Trap Lore Ross isn’t the first sensationalist to touch the roads and he won’t be the last. But as someone who claims to be a historian, it’s on him to display his subject and all of its facets. Especially when you consider just how prevalent gang culture is, you don’t get to make light of it, no matter what the demand for that type of content is. This saga will no doubt spark debate about the kind of characters the scene lets in and whether guests of the culture should know their place. As a guest, being respectful is paramount. In the case of Trap Lore Ross, he has been allowed to profit off Black pain for entirely too long, using his privilege to access certain circles and throw it back in our faces. He needs to reassess what he really does all of this for and what brought him to this point in the first place because it wasn’t, and isn’t, for us.