San Francisco Frontiers - Hip hop trio Kneecap has Coachella rapping in Irish

But the group debuted at the top music festival over the weekend to a packed, exuberant audience, some of whom sported Irish tricolor balaclavas as they headbanged, screamed and moshed along -- whether they understood the Irish lyrics or not.

Kneecap has enjoyed a blockbuster year following the release of their album "Fine Art" and their acclaimed semi-fictional eponymous biopic.

Playing Coachella was yet another "milestone," said DJ Provai, whose signature look includes the aforementioned balaclavas -- even if it was ill-suited for California's searing desert sun.

"Our poor little pasty Irish skin, we're not built for this," Mo Chara said.

While sipping aperol spritzes backstage the members of Kneecap joked to AFP they're mere "small city boys."

But their electrifying set a couple hours later was living proof of the global chord they have struck.

"We didn't think that the movie would resonate with anybody outside of Ireland," said Moglai Bap. "But actually, in reality, it was about an international story."

"It's an international story of languages being oppressed, because obviously the first protocol for colonialism is to eradicate the language and the culture," echoed Chara.

- 'Voice to voiceless people' -

For Kneecap, rapping in Irish is an act of resistance: the language was long suppressed, and only became officially recognized in Northern Ireland in 2022.

"The best thing you can do for your child in Ireland is to send them to an Irish school," said Chara. "When you lose our language, you lose understanding of where you're from."

"We had 32 words for fields. It depends on where the sun rises, or if it was a deep field... you lose all that whenever we have these new monolingual societies."

The bandmates have said fans tell them their music -- hip hop in the vein of Rage Against The Machine, infused with rock and electronic influences -- has inspired newfound interest in learning or improving their Irish.

That's "a process of decolonization," Bap said, replacing "shame" in language and identity with "confidence."

"Everybody longs I think, deep down, for that sense of being grounded -- of having an identity and being connected to something," he added.

For Kneecap, hip hop -- the Black American art form that grew out of experiences of injustice and inequality -- is a natural vehicle.

"Storytelling is such a massive part of Irish culture," Chara said. "It's always passed down orally, same as any Indigenous language."

History, he continued, "is always written by the winner. That's where hip hop stems from -- it's the story of the people who never got to tell their story."

"It gives a voice to voiceless people," added DJ Provai.

- 'Investing in a community' -

Kneecap has made a point of drawing parallels between their own experiences under a colonizing force to those elsewhere in the world, notably the plight of Palestinians.

They have become one of music's most strident voices on the war in Gaza.

"We are from Belfast and Derry, Ireland which are still under British rule," they told their Coachella audience, "but there's a worse occupation happening now."

"Free Palestine!" they said to roaring cheers.

Speaking to AFP, the artists said they've watched the recent suppression of pro-Palestinian activism under Donald Trump's White House with concern: "It's obviously a pretty scary time for people here," Chara said.

And "it's quite ironic for America, a place that preaches free speech," Bap added.

The members of Kneecap have been at the center of controversies including over their provocative, satirical lyrics as well as an arts grant that evolved into court proceedings revolving around allegations of anti-British sentiment.

Kneecap won the case late last year -- and of course, such high-profile wrangling has the ultimate effect of drawing attention to their cause.

Part of their mission includes showing how language can have intrinsic worth beyond economic value, Bap said, adding that no one was learning Irish to widen their job prospects.

Rapping in Irish "is not a good business, not on paper," Chara laughed -- although the raucous, raging crowds at Coachella might indicate otherwise.

W.Thompson--SFF