Belfast rap trio Kneecap have been the name on everyone’s lips lately – and not just because they’re the first Irish-language hip hop act to ever hit the Coachella stage.
Their appearance at the Californian influencer mega-fest was chaotic, historic, and characteristically controversial.
Between crashing a golf cart, linking up with Ice Spice, and proudly sharing a pro-Palestine message during their Sahara tent set – which they later claimed was cut from the festival’s livestream – Kneecap made damn sure no one forgot their name.
And that name? It’s not just edgy branding. It’s a statement – and a brutal one at that.
For the uninitiated, “kneecapping” refers to a punishment method used primarily by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles — a decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland that left thousands dead.
It involved shooting someone in the knee (or both knees) as a form of vigilante justice – typically for crimes like drug dealing, informing, or stepping out of line with the paramilitary codes of the time.
So yeah, Kneecap didn’t pluck their name from a hat.
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In true punk fashion, the trio – made up of rappers Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, and DJ Próvaí – wear their name like a Molotov cocktail.
It’s an intentionally incendiary choice that reflects their mission: to rip up polite conversations around Irish identity, British colonialism, and nationalist narratives, all while spitting bars in Gaeilge.
Since forming in West Belfast in 2017, Kneecap have become a lightning rod for both praise and outrage.
Their music is sharp, satirical and steeped in politics – often referencing the lingering traumas of The Troubles, the failures of the peace process, and the cultural erasure of the Irish language.
Think Dead Prez with a Belfast drawl, or The Rubberbandits if they’d been radicalised by decades of British occupation.
At Coachella, they used their moment in the desert sun not just to break language barriers, but to push political ones, too.
“FUCK ISRAEL FREE PALESTINE” read the projection on the stage, in the same set where lyrics like “Tiocfaidh ár lá” (“Our day will come”) rang out across the crowd.
For a band banned from Facebook ads, booted off BBC radio, and whose biopic was literally pulled from a government funding shortlist, it tracks. Silence has never been their style.
And while some may flinch at the violence invoked by their name, Kneecap see it differently.
In interviews, they’ve framed it as reclaiming language, history and trauma – holding a mirror up to a system that brutalised a people, then gaslit them into forgetting.
Their 2024 second album, Fine Art, continues that mission, offering tracks that are just as likely to reference ancient mythology as they are ketamine and balaclavas.
So, if you missed their debut Australian tour last month and you’re just now hearing about Kneecap thanks to their viral Coachella exploits, know this: the chaos is calculated. The controversy is deliberate. And the name? It’s a challenge — to remember, to reckon, and to listen closer.
