{"id":63423,"date":"2026-04-28T14:08:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/kneecap-make-the-most-of-their-spotlight-on-fenian\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:08:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:08:42","slug":"kneecap-make-the-most-of-their-spotlight-on-fenian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/kneecap-make-the-most-of-their-spotlight-on-fenian\/","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap Make the Most of Their Spotlight on ‘Fenian’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tKneecap<\/a> are a politically charged, hard-partying, musically explosive rap<\/a> crew from the north of Ireland<\/a> who\u2019ve been at it for nearly a decade. But it wouldn\u2019t be your fault if you knew more about the controversies they\u2019ve been embroiled in than the music they\u2019ve put out. Rappers Mo Chara and M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap, along with DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed, have always put their leftist sympathies front and center on their music. At Coachella<\/a> in 2025, the group projected the phrase \u201cIsrael is committing genocide\u201d on screens behind their performance. In the annals of button-pushing statements by musicians, that sentiment doesn\u2019t necessarily seem that<\/em> extreme, but in our touchy times it led to the loss of their U.S. visas and the cancellation of a North American tour. A few months earlier in 2024, during a London show, Mo Chara held up a Hezbollah flag. (He claimed a fan threw it onstage.) In response, he was prosecuted under the U.K.\u2019s 2006 Terrorism Act. The charges were later thrown out, and the group issued a statement<\/a> denouncing \u201call attacks on civilians, always,\u201d but the scandal was big enough news that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped in to claim that Kneecap\u2019s upcoming performance at the 2025 Glastonbury festival was \u201cnot appropriate.\u201d Undeterred, the band fired back, \u201cYou know what\u2019s \u2018not appropriate\u2019 Keir? Arming a fucking genocide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tKneecap used the downtime caused by their canceled tour to record their third album, Fenian<\/em>, which builds off their well-received 2024 LP Fine Art<\/a> <\/em>by setting over-the-top political sloganeering to a frenetic punk-rap sound. These guys have got the spotlight, and they\u2019re going to make the best of it. \u201cFuck Keir Starmer\/Netanyahu\u2019s bitch, and genocide-armer\/Better off as compost for farmers,\u201d they rap on \u201cLiar\u2019s Tale,\u201d in one of the best examples of their ability to deliver Public Enemy-level invective with an Eminem-ish feel for the absurd. On \u201cCarnival,\u201d they break out a classic hip-hop trope \u2014 a skit where they get pulled in front of a lame-ass, bewigged judge \u2014 and use it as a springboard for a fiery recounting of their myriad career travails and legal persecution. \u201cThat\u2019s double standards of the highest degree\/I think it has something to do with the subjects we speak,\u201d they intone. On \u201cPalestine,\u201d which features a verse calling for pan-Arabic unity from Palestinian rapper Fawzi, the band connects the struggle for Irish independence with the plight of the Palestinians, rapping \u201cFrom the west of the city to the West Bank\/We won\u2019t stop until everyone is free.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tComparing life on the west side of Belfast to life in the West Bank is a little dicey, even if your heart is in the right place. But Kneecap definitely aren\u2019t the first politically minded pop act to struggle a little with the specifics. And there\u2019s plenty here they\u2019re pretty clear on \u2014 whether they\u2019re romanticizing Ireland\u2019s revolutionary past on \u201cSmugglers and Scholars,\u201d taking the piss out of English cultural imperialism on \u201cAn Ra,\u201d or big-upping the endurance and grandeur of the Irish language on \u201cGael Phonics.\u201d The last of those is a passion they put into practice as Mo Chara and M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap buoyantly switch from English to Irish in their hot-potato rhymes. They will certainly go down as the first rap act to shout out labor radical, Easter Rising alum, and martyred republican freedom fighter James Connolly.\u00a0When you can make verses that go, \u201cDaoinegafafaoismachtnanGall\/Saoirse Niamh agus Ois\u00edn de reir cos\u00falachta\u00ed ag teacht r\u00f3-mhall\u201d bounce and swerve and flow and actually sound kinda tough, you\u2019ve added something unique to the rap canon.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

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\n\tEven when the subject matter skirts into uncomfortable territory (\u201cSmugglers and Scholars\u201d isn\u2019t shy about mythologizing IRA violence), the general feel of this joyously hard-hitting album is as convivial as a fun night out at the pub, fusing decades of music into a coherent playful whole (abetted by Fontaines DC and Wet Leg producer Dan Carey). \u201cCarnival\u201d and \u201cCocaine Hill\u201d bring to mind the Nineties trip-hop of Massive Attack and Tricky; with its hyper-speed jungle bats and fire-alarm backing track, \u201cHeadcase\u201d harkens to early Prodigy; \u201cBig Bad Mo\u201d has echoes of Detroit techno; \u201cPalestine\u201d rides along on a grainy grime track; and their hip-hop palette goes from word-nerd indie spiels to grim gangsta menace. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tKneecap write about their lives in Belfast on songs like \u201cCocaine Hill\u201d and \u201cCold at the Top,\u201d mainly getting moodily specific about the dark side of drugs and partying, and they close it out with \u201cIrish Goodbye,\u201d a tribute to a loving mother who has died. On \u201cOccupied 6,\u201d an allusion to the six counties that comprise North Ireland, they rap \u201cit wasn\u2019t all about teenage kicks,\u201d a passing reference to a classic 1970s punk tune about youthful good times by Belfast greats the Undertones. On Fenian<\/em>, Kneecap are more in step with the dead-end angst of another legendary Belfast punk banger from that era, Stiff Little Fingers\u2019 \u201cAlternative Ulster,\u201d a rousing song about hungering for a better, fairer, freer future than the one history has handed you. Even if you can\u2019t go down the line with every political stance they take \u2014 or you wouldn\u2019t know Gerry Adams from Jerry Lee Lewis \u2014 that desire should feel universal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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