Serious business (L-R: Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Móglaí Bap)
"Guess who's back on the news
It's your favourite Republican hoods"
It's your favourite Republican hoods"
— "Get Your Brits Out"
Kneecap are a hip-hop band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a trio using the stage names Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Próvaí.
Kneecap mix Irish and English lyrics, with many of their songs directly focused on life in Northern Ireland and the legacy of The Troubles. They're outspoken Republicans, and their lyrics are often critical of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the British government and the police. However, they also make a point of mocking Republican extremists, and one theme of their music is that neither faction has much to offer the Northern Irish generation born after the Good Friday Agreement.
The 2024 film Kneecap is a fictionalised version of Kneecap's origins, with the band members playing themselves. It became the first Irish-language film to open at Sundance and the first non-American picture to debut in the NEXT strand.
Discography
Albums- 3CAG (2018)
- Fine Art (announced for June 2024)
- "C.E.A.R.T.A." (2017)
- "Amach Anocht" (2018)
- "H.O.O.D." (2019)
- "Gael-Gigolos" (2019)
- "Fenian Cunts" (2019)
- "Get Your Brits Out" (2019)
- "Mam" (2020), Kneecap & Dyrt
- "Guilty Conscience" (2021)
- "Thart agus Thart" (2021)
- "Its Been Ages" (2023)
- "Better Way To Live" (2023), feat. Grian Chatten
- "Sick in the Head", Jonah Swiley remix (2024)
- "Fine Art" (2024)
Kneecap's work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Addiction Song: Grian Chatten's segment of "Better Way To Live" portrays a man stuck in a downward spiral due to alcohol. Lyrics mention that he got a glimpse of something better ("heaven"), however "I know it exists, but I can't stop getting pissed" and "I think all day, but when I drink I'm okay".
- Anti-Police Song:
- "C.E.A.R.T.A"'s lyrics and video show two of the band in trouble with the police. The one English section of the lyrics, in the policeman's voice, explains that one of them is being detained for "damaging public property". The video shows this crime as graffiti.
- "Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite" is about being stopped for a drugs search and threatened by the police. The protagonist eventually snaps and knifes both the policeman and the sniffer dog, or at least fantasises about doing so.
- Book Ends:
- The video for "Better Way To Live" starts with a woman walking up stairs, entering a darkened pub and switching on the lights. It ends, in silence, as she switches off the light and leaves the same way.
- The video for "Guilty Conscience" starts with the band walking into a church and entering a confessional. It ends when they leave the confessional booth and exit the church.
- Country Matters: Kneecap are an Irish band who swear a lot, and "cunt" gets used freely in many songs.
- "Fenian Cunts" is just as blunt as the title suggests, with the chorus repeating the phrase multiple times. The song itself is actually a take on Star-Crossed Lovers, not simply an angry Political Rap, although it's certainly political.
- The very first word of "Gael-Gigolos" is an emphatic "Cunts!", and it recurs half a dozen times later in the lyrics, usually as a complaint that they're wasting the singer's time ("Na cunts, ag cur amú mo chuid ama").
- Comeback song "It's Been Ages" uses the word a few times, noting that it's "Been a while since cunts were blaming Kneecap".
- "Guilty Conscience" threatens that "all of you cunts are getting one behind the ear" and Mo Chara mentions that "I never spare a second thought for cunts in suits".
- "Better Way To Live" throws in a "Don't let the cunts get ya" near the end.
- In "Sick in the Head", the devil offers Mo Chara a bargain, trading wealth for poor mental health. When the answer is an immediate "yes", the devil responds "You're a mad cunt, Mo Chara".
- "Fine Art" mentions fans (and 'fans') approaching the band while they're out. One Irish lyric is "ordaigh deoch sula labhrann cunt liom" (roughly translated, trying to "order a drink before this cunt talks to me").
- Deliberate VHS Quality:
- For the video of "Better Way To Live", guest vocalist Grian Chatten is seen on an old cathode ray TV screen within the pub where the video's set. There's no screen flicker, but the TV screen image is noticeably, deliberately blurry compared to the rest of the video.
- The official lyric video of "Get Your Brits Out" has some VHS-style interference added — and occasional moments when the picture's briefly completely lost to static.
- Fan Disservice: The cover image of single "Get Your Brits Out" is a cartoon of a very elderly, very wrinkled Elizabeth II who's only wearing an ermine-trimmed bra. The background of the official lyric video alternates between the same image and a fully dressed version of the queen.
- Fictional Counterpart: The 'Radical Republicans Against Drugs', whose statement provides the spoken word framework of "Your All Legitimate Targets", are a parody of real Republican paramilitary groups and their brutal punishment for anyone believed to be involved with drugs.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Inverted in "Guilty Conscience". While robbing a security van Móglaí Bap explains that he doesn't want to hurt anyone, but then introduces Mo Chara as "a bit of a psycho", saying that a typo is enough to send him into a rage. "So whatever you do, do whatever he says".
- Knee-capping:
- The band say
they take their name from the way paramilitary groups would punish suspected drug dealers. This gets a direct mention in the in-character monologue "Your All Legitimate Targets", which opens debut album 3CAG.From today onward, anyone found taking drugs
Are legitimate targets
And anyone found selling narcotics
Will be brought forward to be kneecapped... - One line of "Gael-Gigolos" suggests that the singers are risking kneecapping (soon our knees will be full of lead - "Agus róimhe bhfad bheadh ár nglúine lan luaidhe"). The video reinforces this by showing Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara held prisoner by "the official Republican movement" and given 24 hours to make things right. The 'or else' is strongly implied.
- The band say
- Meet the New Boss: When mentioning the police, usually extremely negatively, Kneecap's lyrics tend to refer to the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary). After allegations of brutality and sectarian policing, the RUC was actually renamed and reformed in 2001, at the end of The Troubles, replaced by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). As far as the songs are concerned, though, they're implied to be exactly the same as their predecessors.
- Molotov Cocktail: The video for "Guilty Conscience" shows the band in confessionals, rapidly cutting back and forth between the three members. DJ Próvaí, still in his balaclava, is sometimes seen waving a lit Molotov cocktail around in the booth.
- Multi-Armed Multitasking: The cover for "Guilty Conscience" shows a four-armed version of DJ Próvaí sitting cross-legged in a Buddha pose. One arm holds a spliff, one holds a Molotov Cocktail and a third holds a bottle of what seems to be Buckfast.
- Northern Irish and Nasty: Kneecap are a Northern Irish band, but paint a pretty bleak picture of the province and its people. "Fenian Cunts" centres around Unionist bigotry towards Republicans, "Get Your Brits Out" is a Political Rap portraying the DUP leadership as pretty unpleasant, "Gael-Gigolos" and "Your All Legitimate Targets" feature Republican extremists and "Guilty Conscience" and "H.O.O.D." portray the band members themselves as violent thugs. Subverted when some songs dig deeper into the poverty and divisions that fuel drug use and violence within the province.
- Ode to Intoxication: "Amach Anocht" (which translates as "Out Tonight") covers a wide range of drink and drugs, all part of a wild night out. From drinking Carlsberg and gin on to ketamines, MDMA, cocaine and cannabis. The last line of the chorus, "Sure, cá bhfuil an dochar?", translates as "Sure, where's the harm?", but is presented in a context that suggests it's not quite that simple.
- Political Rap: "Get Your Brits Out" is a direct Take That! to the DUP leadership and the British government of Northern Ireland. Politicians Arlene Foster, Christopher Stalford, Sammy Wilson and Jeffrey Donaldson get mentioned by name, with Donaldson criticised for his "homophobic chat".
- Pun-Based Title: "Get Your Brits Out" is a pun on infamous catcall "get your tits out".
- Punny Name:
- The Stage Name "Mo Chara" is also Irish for "my friend".
- The Credits Gag at the start of the "Gael-Gigolos" video names the first of the masked paramilitaries as "Chuckie Árlá". The Irish Republican slogan "Tiocfaidh ár lá" means "our day will come", and Tiocfaidh is pronounced similarly to Chuckie (as a consequence, Chucky has also become a pejorative term for Irish Republicans).
- Recycled Title: 3CAG is the title of Kneecap's first album. It's also the title of the first track on second album Fine Art.
- Sampling: "Fine Art" samples radio presenter Stephen Nolan reporting on the mural of a burning police car that Kneecap unveiled in Belfast in 2022. The sample ends with Nolan quoting the band's own description of the mural as "Fine Art", then repeats that line throughout the rest of the song.
- Slasher Smile: The cover of single "Sick in the Head" shows a portrait of Margaret Thatcher with a slightly manic expression and an unsettling toothy smile. It's largely obscured by the title logo.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: "Fine Art" doesn't censor any of its many expletives, but does use a bleep to cover "Northern" when it samples radio presenter Stephen Nolan talking about "Northern Ireland".
- Spelling for Emphasis:
- The lyrics to "C.E.A.R.T.A" repeatedly spell out its title. Cearta is Irish for "rights".
- The lyrics to "H.O.O.D." spell out the title drop.I’m a H double-O D. "Low life scum", that’s what they say about me
- Star-Crossed Lovers: "Fenian Cunts" tells the story of how Móglaí Bap meets a woman he thinks is the sweetest and prettiest in the world, a girl he compares to the mythical beauty Niamh Cinn Óir. He swiftly realises that she's Protestant, and when they return to her room he notes her Union Jack bedsheet and a photo of her grandfather in an RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) uniform, but isn't deterred. For her part, she's aghast when she finally realises he's Catholic, and says she's "got no time for Republican scum". The chorus, with its "you Fenian cunts, get away from me", is revealed to be from her perspective.
- Take That!:
- The chorus to "Incognito" takes a swipe at Irish state broadcaster RTÉ and tells fans not to listen to them ("Ná focain éist le RTÉ").
- The title logo for "Sick in the Head" dominates the single's cover. The partially-obscured image behind it is a framed painting of Margaret Thatcher with a Slasher Smile.
- Wearing a Flag on Your Head: DJ Próvaí always wears a balaclava in the style of the Irish tricolour flag.
- Wowing Cthulhu: Towards the end of "Sick in the Head", the devil makes Mo Chara an offer. Mo Chara listens to it, including the downsides, and immediately says yes. The surprised devil calls him a "mad cunt".
"We’re not an army. We’re just three boys from Belfast making a bit of art."
— Móglaí Bap
