The Death of Kneecap
By R. Loxley
There was a time not long ago when Irish rap trio Kneecap were merely a mild nuisance, performing in mid-sized clubs in a language no one speaks outside of Galway.
In early 2024, their Irish-language film Kneecap premiered at Sundance and got shortlisted for international awards, and ticket demand surged. But when Kneecap dropped a pro-Palestine bombshell at Coachella, declaring “Israel is committing genocide” and projecting anti-Israel slogans, their career took a sharp nosedive, with visas temporarily pulled, booking shaken off, and Mo Chara charged under the terrorism act, with figures from both Labour and the Tories calling for them to be banned from Glastonbury, as the BBC agonised over whether to broadcast their performance.
The result?
They just keep getting more famous.
With condemnation from Keir Starmer, Suella Bravermen, the Daily Express comment section, and all the least popular people in Britain, the sky’s the limit, and this is a dangerous precedent. Other artists are getting ideas, but to any musicians reading this, please, for your own sake, tread carefully. If you act like Kneecap you risk:
Viral fame
International solidarity
Real-world relevance
Political credibility
A lifelong fanbase of 20-somethings
You have to ask, is it worth it? Is it worth the public career implosion of gaining public support from Massive Attack and headlines in every major newspaper just to stand up for an oppressed people going through the worst mass-scale crime any of us have ever seen?
The BBC is still debating whether three men with microphones are too dangerous to be broadcast on TV as our bought western leaders charge towards World War III unabated. So let this be a cautionary tale to up-and-coming musicians. If you go “full Kneecap” and decide to speak your mind about an ongoing genocide that we’ve all watched unfold for 2 years, you may get cancelled by the establishment and end up getting much bigger gigs, gaining a deeply loyal fanbase, tap into the emotional core of the entire globe, embody the exact kind of relevance music is supposed to stand for, and become legends in your own time.
Think about your future carefully, because if you don’t, you might just find your career absolutely, irreversibly thriving.
