The Northern Ireland-based hip hop trio Kneecap has announced tour dates for later this year and confirmed guests. The group consists of MCs Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara, and DJ Provaí. 2000trees festival have announced that they will help put on their show at Exchange Bristol in September and Sello has been announced as a special guest for their show at Olympia Theatre in October.

Kneecap have previously been classified as a highly political group, as they have openly voiced support for a United Ireland. Furthermore, they rap exclusively in Irish, despite it being an officially recognised minority language in 2011. Móglaí Bap said: “We always spoke Irish to each other, so it seemed normal to make music in the language we spoke. We didn’t even think about it as a deliberate thing. It’s our first language, so it seemed natural to make music in Irish too. It doesn’t really make sense to have to stick to one way of speaking or one language. “We jump from one to the other all the time. Language is fluid, know what I mean?”

Móglaí Bap has also said that he takes inspiration from a specific genre: “My influences are definitely rebel songs. A lot of them are very satirical, there’s a lot of humour in them. It’s definitely had a big influence in that idea of turning something dark into something funny.”

They have been involved in a number of controversies thus far in their career. To name one, the group was banned from radio stations of RTE, Ireland’s national broadcaster due to offensive lyrics. However, Kneecap continues to remain largely influential both in and out of the hip hop world, thanks to their wish to continue the Irish tradition.