Early morning on 14 July 2025, rapper Hassan Ali whose stage name is Top5 narrowly avoided violent knife attack at the outdoor London Wireless Festival where he was headlining in celebration of his pal and global superstar Drake. The attack injured his neck with a nasty scar, has sparked heated controversy over rap beefs, social media machismo, and the rising UK wave ofknife violence.
Hassan Ali is 26 years old and comes from the vibrant hip-hop culture in Toronto and from related involvement in Drake’s OVO movement. Top5 has been notorious for his incendiary social media profile as well as for his raps. In 2021, he was indicted for first-degree murder in the killing of 20-year-old Hashim Omar Hashi but had the indictment stayed in 2024 when the judge ruled his social media actions and his raps inadmissible as evidence. More recently in January 2025, he was again brought into police custody on weapons charges, marking his tumultuous court history.
The incident unfolded past midnight on July 13–14, 2025, near Springpark Drive in North London, moments after Drake’s final Wireless Festival performance. Top5, engaging with fans near the festival grounds, was ambushed by a masked assailant. Accounts conflict: some, for example DJ Akademiks, report he was stabbed in the neck; others, like the Metropolitan Police, confirm a leg wound. Footage on social media shows a crowd gathering around Top5’s white Mercedes, smashing in the windshield and kicking the car as he was attempting to flee. The police have not confirmed the direct link between the stabbing and the footage.
Top5 was rushed to a hospital, where he underwent surgery for what Akademiks described as a “17-inch laceration” that caused significant blood loss.
“Top5 is good,”
Akademiks said on Instagram Live.
“He lost a lot of blood, but he’s gonna have a full recovery.”
By July 23, a photo shared via No Jumper’s X account revealed a brutal scar on Top5’s neck, prompting Reddit users to react with shock:
“They damn near decapitated him.”
He is now recovering in Paris, posting on Instagram with the Arabic phrase,
“Alhamdulillah for everything,”
signaling gratitude for his survival.
Hours before the attack, Top5 sparked outrage on a livestream when he said,
“There is no real killers in London.”
The statement, interpreted as a dig at the street credibility of the city, sparked outrage from UK rappers including Ratlin, who went on socials and labeled him a “police bwoy.” Tensions were even more on the boil considering the context of Top5 earlier attempting to approach Kendrick Lamar at a hotel in Toronto, which was seen as clout-hunting at the height of Drake’s existing rap beefs. Such prodding exemplifies the dangerous mashing together of internet chat and in-life consequences.
The incident comes against the backdrop of increase in knife crime in London by 54% from 2016 until 2023 with 14,000 cases in the city in September 2023, the office of the Mayor of London has stated. Although 2025 statistics await publication, the capital’s struggle with knife violence forms the background for the incident. The Metropolitan police is continuing with the incident investigations and has made no arrest to date but would like witnesses to come out and share information with them.
