Kneecap aren’t any strangers to controversy – however is that this time other?

To their enthusiasts, west Belfast rave-rap workforce Kneecap are a rowdy, subversive power of nature. But to many others, their inflammatory political messages cause them to unhealthy and amoral.

Following within the footsteps of anti-establishment rap teams like NWA and Run The Jewels, the trio provide themselves as dissident underdogs, giving a voice to the oppressed.

Their lyrics, delivered in a rapid-fire mixture of English and Irish, quilt the entirety from drug-fuelled events to their need to unfastened Northern Ireland from British rule.

On degree and on movie, they have got created a riotous enjoy that is overjoyed Glastonbury, gained a Bafta award, and impressed what is been known as an “Irish language revolution“.

But their emerging profile has led to higher scrutiny and anger about their political statements.

During an incendiary efficiency on the Coachella tune pageant in California previous this month, they described Israel’s army motion in Gaza as a US-funded genocide. As a end result, they have got been known as anti-Semitic and branded “terrorist sympathisers”.

Now, photos from two earlier gigs is being assessed by means of counter-terrorism police in the United Kingdom.

In one, the band allegedly name for the demise of Conservative MPs. Another turns out to turn a band member shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”. Both teams are banned in the United Kingdom and this is a crime to precise make stronger for them.

Kneecap have answered with a observation, announcing they “do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah”.

They claimed that photos the place they looked as if it would say “the only good Tory is a dead Tory” were “taken out of all context”, and apologised for the harm led to to the households of murdered MPs Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.

But Cox’s widower Brendan was once unimpressed, calling their observation “only half an apology”. Downing Street agreed, describing their phrases as “half-hearted” and “completely unacceptable”.

The row was once mentioned within the House of Commons on Tuesday, with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp calling their feedback “evil”.

It is not the band’s first brush with controversy. If the rest, controversy is of their DNA. But this time, the fallout threatens to engulf their occupation, with venues and gala’s below force to cancel the band’s gigs.

To know the way we were given right here, here is Kneecap’s foundation tale.

Kneecap have been shaped in 2017 by means of rappers Mo Chara (Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) and Móglaí Bap (Naoise Ó Cairealláin), along beatmaker DJ Próvaí (JJ Ó Dochartaigh).

Their occupation was once sparked by means of an incident during which Móglaí and a pal have been out spray-painting the day earlier than a march in make stronger of an Irish Language Act.

Móglaí had written “cearta” (rights) on a bus prevent when police arrived. He fled however his pal was once arrested, and spent an evening within the cells after refusing to talk English to the police.

They documented the incident within the track C.E.A.R.T.A, which they launched “just for the craic. No plans for after,” Mo Chara informed the Irish Times.

To their marvel, the track was once playlisted by means of Irish broadcaster RTÉ, simplest to be got rid of after listeners complained about drug references within the lyrics.

After that, their output was once sporadic. The mixtape 3CAG (slang for the drug MDMA) arrived in 2018, adopted by means of the singles H.O.O.D and MAM – devoted to Móglaí’s mom, who had died by means of suicide.

Those early data showcased a capability to transport between sharp satire, smooth vulnerability and the stories of Northern Ireland’s “ceasefire babies” – the technology born across the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Talking to the BBC in 2023, the band mentioned they have been impressed by means of US bands like Dead Prez, NWA and Wu Tang Clan.

“Rebel music in Ireland has all the same sort of ideas as hip-hop in America. A community that’s oppressed, using songs to revolt in some way,” mentioned Mo Chara.

Unusually, they carry out maximum in their lyrics in Irish, reclaiming the language from rural folks tune.

“The only way that Irish history and mythology was passed down was orally. I think that’s why it’s important for us to have that intertwined with our music,” Móglaí Bap informed Crack mag remaining 12 months.

Kneecap’s lyrics often include Republican slang and slogans. Even their identify is a connection with the IRA’s selected way of punishment for alleged drug sellers right through the Troubles.

The messaging has landed them in scorching water earlier than. DJ Próvaí misplaced his task as a trainer in 2020 after his college was once alerted to a video of a live performance the place he’d painted “Brits out” on his buttocks.

Two years later, the band made headlines in Belfast after commissioning a mural of a burning police car with a slogan criticising Northern Ireland’s pre-Good Friday police power, the RUC.

Designed to advertise a pageant look, it was once criticised by means of politicians around the spectrum.

“Loathe to give the band more publicity,” mentioned Alliance chief Naomi Long, “but as a community we need to start asking ourselves what messages we’re sending out about the kind of future we want.”

The band have claimed their tackle Republicanism is partly tongue-in-cheek – satirising the self-important sloganeering they grew up with.

“Republicanism is so vast, and on a spectrum,” Móglaí Bap informed the New York Times. “We like to toy with it. We like to take the irony on.”

Certainly, the band’s gleeful birthday celebration of drug tradition places them at odds with the previous guard of the motion – however the band are occupied with their need for a unified Ireland.

“The British government has failed us for 100 years,” Mo Charra informed Vulture remaining 12 months. “It’s not like this is a trial run. You’ve had enough time and it’s failed.”

Kneecap’s popularity grew in 2024 with the discharge of a movie, also referred to as Kneecap, which offered a semi-fictional, and continuously hilarious, account in their upward thrust to popularity.

Starring the band as themselves, with Michael Fassbender as Móglaí’s father, the film gained the target market award on the Sundance Film Festival, with critics praising its “punky defiance” and “unruly power“, and was once nominated for 6 Baftas.

It was once adopted by means of their debut album, Fine Art, an idea document that threw enthusiasts right into a hedonistic evening out with the band at a fictional Belfast pub known as The Rutz.

With songs that skewered the tune trade and addressed Northern Ireland’s psychological well being disaster, it showcased a band with extra to mention than their popularity instructed.

Still, in an generation of sanitised, apolitical tune, Kneecap’s instincts for provocation and protest have been inevitably going to attract consideration.

Pro-Palestinian chants have featured of their gigs for the reason that get started of the most recent Israel-Gaza battle. But once they introduced the ones messages to Coachella, they confronted a brand new stage of scrutiny and complaint.

Kneecap were not the one individuals who uttered pro-Palestinian messages on the pageant, however accusations of genocide and video displays that declared “F*** Israel” have been observed by means of some as crossing a line into hate speech.

The organisers of Israel’s Nova Music Festival, the place greater than 360 other people have been killed by means of Hamas in 2023, mentioned Kneecap’s message “deeply hurt” their group, and invited the band to seek advice from an exhibition in regards to the sufferers and survivors – “not to shame or silence but to connect”.

Others took a extra strident tone. A tune trade workforce known as The Creative Community For Peace, in conjunction with Sharon Osbourne, known as on the United States executive to revoke the band’s visas.

The band’s supervisor defended their movements. Citing Hamas-run well being ministry figures that greater than 50,000 Palestinians were killed for the reason that get started of the battle, Daniel Lambert characterized complaint of the Coachella efficiency as “moral hysteria”.

“If somebody’s hurt by the truth, that’s something for them to be hurt by,” he informed RTÉ1. “But it’s really important to speak truth and thankfully, the lads are not afraid to do that.

“They have the bravery and the conviction, given the place they have got come from in a post-conflict society, to get up for what is proper, and [they] are prepared to do this even if it’s going to hurt their occupation.”

Right now, their career is under intense pressure.

Since Coachella, Kneecap have received death threats and have been dropped by their booking agents in the US, which could jeopardise their visas ahead of a forthcoming sold-out tour.

The discovery of the concert video in which the band shouted “the one excellent Tory is a lifeless Tory” and advised the audience to “kill your native MP” shocked the political establishment, with counter-terrorism police reviewing the footage.

In Scotland, First Minister John Swinney has called for the band to be dropped from Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival, saying their comments had “crossed a line”.

The Eden Project in Cornwall has cancelled their gig in July, and others, including Glastonbury, are under pressure to call off appearances.

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said on Tuesday: “There is an ongoing reside police investigation, so the federal government would urge the organisers on the Glastonbury Festival to assume very moderately about who’s invited to accomplish there later this 12 months.”

At the same time, the criticism has only increased the profile of an act who were essentially an underground act a month ago.

This week, Kneecap’s album entered the iTunes chart in Italy, Brazil and Germany for the primary time.