Kneecap: Irish Hip-Hop Group’s Coachella Controversy Explained

The ball joint has been the headlines for several years, but the last appearance of the Hip-Hop group in Coachella has attracted the attention of the world.

The group based in Belfast occurred on both weekends at California Festival. As has become the custom for their shows, their performances included heavy political messages on the conflict in Gaza.

While the organizers of Coachella tried to censor the group after the first weekend by removing their set of the live broadcast of the festival, this only made interest in performance.

Here is everything you need to know about the group and what has happened since their Coachella performance.

The ball joint is known for its provocative words and its outspoken political opinions

The group, which formed in 2017, is made up of rappers Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and Dj Próvaí, who rap in English and Irish.

The “shows and tracks of the group turn around between the art of satirical performance and rave raves”, reads their Spotify biography.

In 2025, their semi-autobiographical film, “Kneceecap”, won the BAFTA for the exceptions in exception, recognizing the work of the first director Rich Peppiatt. In the film, Chara, Bap and Dj Próvaí played versions of themselves alongside Michael Fassbender.

Irish Times Reports that the first song of the group “Cearta” was inspired by a race with the police after Bap and his friend were taken painting the word, who is Irish for “rights”, on a bus stop. While Bap was not arrested, his friend was and he spent a police night a night while waiting for a Gaeilge-English translator when he refused to speak in English to the police in service.

Since its release from its first album in 2018, the group has been the center of several other controversies. In particular, they have become involved in a Legal battle with the British government in 2024 After obtaining a subsidy of $ 18,970 (£ 14,250), but were then blocked because of their creative production, which regularly promotes Irish republicanism and opposition to British domination in Northern Ireland. The group brought an action in force against the British government, which they have won.

While performing in Australia in March, the group brought on stage The chief of a statue of George Vwhich had been removed from a park in Victoria during a series of demonstrations against the colonial monuments in 2024.

Kneceecap made his debut in Coachella on April 11

The group occurred on the two weekends of the festival, the two performances featured the political messaging expressed by the group and projected on the screens behind them. Nme reported that during their first performance, the trio led the public to a song on the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was censored by The Livestream on the official Youtube page of the Festival.

The group responded to the article on X, saying that it was “not the only thing that was cut” because they also included messages concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in their set.

At the end of their program during the second weekend of Coachella on April 18, which the organizers did not broadcast, three messages appeared on the screens behind the group.

“Israel commits a genocide against the Palestinian people”, Projected messages read. “It is possible by the United States government which is preparing and finances Israel despite their war crimes. Fuck Israel; Free Palestine.”

During the performance, the group led the public in songs of “free and free Palestine”.

The ball joint was not the only artist in Coachella to share political messages on the war in Gaza at the festival. Green Day Billie Joe Armstrong's Front changed the words of “Jesus of Suburbia” and sang “Runnin 'far from pain, like the children of Palestine (the original line is:” Runnin' far from the pain when you were the victim “).

Bob Vylan And Blonde redTwo of the smallest acts of the festival showed the Palestinian flag during their sets, according to video sequences taken by the participants.

The ball joints faces a wave of criticism on their performance as Coachella

Sharon Osbourne, the wife and manager of the Black Sabbath Front, Ozzy Osbourne, is a leading figure figure that spoke against Knececap.

In a long Publish On April 22, she criticized Goldenvoice, the organizer of the festival, because she had allowed “artists to use the Coachella scene as a platform for political expression” and declared that the 2025 festival will remain in the memories “as a festival which compromised its moral and spiritual integrity”. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Goldenvoice was “blinded” by messaging in the Kneceecap set.

Osbourne also called Green Day, who titled the two weekends on Saturday evening, declaring that their inclusion of pro-Palestinian feelings “would have been more appropriate during their own concert, not during a festival”.

She found more fault with the ball joint, declaring that the group “brought their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political declarations”. She asked her disciples to join her “pleading for the revocation of the joint work visa”.

The next day, it was reported that the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom evaluated a video taken during a ball joint concert in London in November 2024, which had been published on social networks.

The BBC reported that the images seemed to show a member of the shouting group “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” when he was draped in a Hezbollah flag.

The two militant groups are considered to be terrorist organizations by the United Kingdom, and express its support for one or the other 2000 terrorism law.

Metropolitan police said in a statement that she had been informed of the video and had been “returned to the reference unit on the Internet for counter-terrorism to assess and determine whether an additional police investigation may be necessary”.

Kneceecap responds to Coachella benefits

Chara, whose real name is Liam óg ó hannaidh, said Roller In an email that the group spoke of the Palestinian conflict “at each concert since the group training”.

“We believe that we have the obligation to use our platform when we can raise the question of Palestine,” he said in the press release published on April 23 “, and it was important for us to express themselves in Coachella because the United States is the main funder and weapons supplier to Israel when they committed a genocide in Gaza.”

He added that the group did not know that their performance on Coachella's first weekend had been interrupted on Coachella Livestream YouTube that the next day.

In response to Osbourne's call for their visas to be dismissed, he said that “the diatribe has so many holes in it that it barely justifies an answer, but it should listen to” War Pigs “which was written by Black Sabbath.”

In a Social media message on April 25Knecap described the answer to their coachella ensemble as a “coordinated smear campaign”.

The ball joint is divided with their American agent

The Hollywood Reporter reported on April 24 that the group of independent artists no longer represents the group in the United States. Primary Talent International represents the group outside the United States.

The point of sale said that IIAG, who has artists such as Metallica, Billy Joel and 50 Cent on his list, separated from the ball joint between the first and second weekend of Coachella.

The reservation agency previously sponsored the American work visas of the trio, but this is no longer the case, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Without valid work visas, people from overseas cannot work in the United States.

The group's website indicates that they should start an American tour on October 1, which consists of 21 dates and is mainly sold.

The ball joint representatives did not respond to a comment request sent by Business Insider concerning the split of IAG and the status of their next American programs.