On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.
What strength is that?” asked Sérgio Godinho, one of the most important Portuguese singer-songwriters, in 1972, when Portugal was still submerged in the long night of fascism—dragging out the agony of its colonial system, condemning people to an unjust war, and spreading the carnage in massacres like the one that took place that year in Wiriyamu, Mozambique. Those were harsh times, marked by a “dormensia ku korrenti” (dormancy with chains), as Scúru Fitchádu would later write and sing in Nez txada skúru dentu skina na braku fundu (2023), his second album, where he reworked and re-signified the poetics of the guerilla and African liberation movements, placing them in the cold concrete thickets of the contemporary city.
More than 50 years have passed since that distant 1972, though the frictions of that memory remain alive in the present. After all, as we’ve recently witnessed in Portugal, where the racist far-right political party Chega had 22.5 percent in the 2025 elections, the serpent’s egg was never properly incinerated—there it is today, transformed into a hydra with 50 furious heads, ready to crush anyone who dares to resist. There they sit, all of them—sons and grandsons of fascists, colonialists, and repackaged terrorist bombers—now comfortably nestled in the honorable seats of Parliament.
By historical coincidence, Scúru Fitchádu’s third album, Griots i Riots, was released the morning after the 2025 election, a day of hangover and shock for those who grew up believing that fascism belonged to the past tense—that places of repression like Tarrafal, or the political violence of the militias in the street, would remain matters of memory, not future threats looming on the horizon. That historical coincidence, as we said, made this album all the more urgent, a symptom of its own time. Urgent, because it’s impossible to hear the unrelenting shout of “Kema palasio kema” without picturing the pigs who would roast beautifully in that redemptive fire. And symptomatic of our time because to the fifty pigs named in the track “Resistensia,” the album’s final piece, we now need to add at least eight more—and, perhaps, sharpen the blades, load the spit a little heavier, and throw some extra fuel into the blaze.
“What strength is that?” Let’s return to Sérgio Godinho’s question. What strength do we “carry in our arms,” one that “demands only obedience”? What force puts us at “ease with others but at odds with ourselves”? These days, we look around lost, downcast, already tasting blood in our mouths. And still, this music—this immanent fury—cuts through the daze, offering not a manifesto of ready-made ideas, but a concrete possibility: to give rage a sense of collective power.
That possibility emerges from the meeting of griots—whose patient wisdom crosses time and space—and riots, urgent responses to immediate violence, a right to self-defense for those who, to borrow again from the last album’s words, refuse to live as a “bakan kontenti tristi i filiss koitadu / ku se sina la dentu borsu i ku korda na piskoss ben marradu” (content, dumb, sad and happy fool / playing with fate in your pocket and a tight rope around the neck).
Griots i Riots picks up exactly where Nez txada skúru dentu skina na braku fundu left off. In “Treinament,” the final track of that record, it spoke of waking up once again with a purpose—“like a dog with clenched teeth and a sore jaw, red eyes waiting for night to fall.” It called for a “prepared militancy” like a root growing strong, turning to weapons and theory with a precise dilemma: “liberation or death.” Not coincidentally, those are also the first words heard on Griots i Riots, wrapped in the crystalline sound of a kora played by Mbye Ebrima, then immediately disrupted by the distorted low-end frequencies that define Scúru Fitchádu’s sonic world.
Guided by this political mantra, the album is built upon the tension between theory and practice, word and action, body and orality, the city and self-interrogation—conceiving of revolution not as a distant utopia but as a concrete, daily possibility. Not something that will come from palaces, vanguard leaders, or expert commissions, but from the praxis of lived experience, rooted in committed communities.
Knowing there is no revolutionary theory without revolutionary practice, Griots i Riots confronts the hard time of reality with the slow time of ancestral wisdom; it challenges the anesthetized apathy of political and cultural intervention by conjuring a dissension that opens cracks toward another future. This confrontation between times and tensions—between memory and urgency, between word and action—is not just a poetic or political gesture. It’s also the compositional principle structuring the album, shaping its rhythm and breath. We hear it right away in “Griot i Riot,” the intro, where ancestral wisdom, carried by the kora, is layered over and gradually contaminated by sonic grime—punctuated by background screams and urgent vocalizations.
Once the blueprint is set, the strategy follows. “Idukasan i saud,” a fast-paced shout of popular revolt that reworks poetic lines from Sérgio Godinho’s À Queima Roupa (1974), is followed by “Kel karta di alfuria…,” a bass-heavy, reflective track about the traps of false liberations lost in the bourgeois entanglements of the Big House. “Funda na poss,” a visceral blow against pop culture’s submissive posture, is succeeded by “Du ta morrê,” an austere and slow meditation on death and grief. The accelerated precision of “Kema palasio kema” clashes with the poetic delivery and harmonized distortion of “Símia Kodjê”—a track with Conan Osiris, where a fado-tinged voice has never sounded so richly defiled. “Prekariadu,” a battle cry against the suffocating precarity of lives in the urban jungle, gives way to “Caoberdiano Barela,” a moving reinterpretation of Princezito’s classic, reminding us that this is a long story still unfolding. Finally, “Resistensia” closes the album, ensuring we don’t forget the clear identification of the targets: the pigs that squeal, the wolves that howl, the sheep that let their guard down.
By his third record, Scúru Fitchádu has lost neither the searing, rough dissent of Un Kuza Runhu (2020) nor the poetic, ethical, and sonic density of Nez txada skúru dentu skina na braku fundu. In Griots i Riots, we hear the same insubordination, the original impulse, the same grime meant to disrupt the management of a rotten peace. But we also hear an artist who is increasingly a dense and sagacious poet, seeking to expand and master his own language, without ever yielding to the cynical reason of our times. Above all, a creator who writes about his time and his people, attuned to their latent anger, invested in the search for new answers born from everyday struggle. A creator whose music becomes the soundtrack of those who refuse to live in chains, yet who allows himself to explore—in both sound and content—deeper reflections on the human condition, the possibilities of agency, the consciousness of death, and the potential for what’s to come: an ongoing attempt to answer Sérgio Godinho’s question: What strength is this that we carry in our arms? Let us keep asking—and keep fighting. On this side of the barricade, no one will die on their knees.
“Dedicated to changing the narrative forever/so when you rhyme make sure you tell the truth on a record” is how the first song of Bambu’s new album ends.
They’re Burning The Boats reimagines a terrible historical act of conquest as a warning for the present. Drawing from Hernán Cortés’ destruction of his own ships to ensure domination, Bambu DePistola uses the phrase to illustrate how modern powers eliminate paths of escape from the current system — tightening control through laws, narratives, and cultural pressure.
Set against Fatgums’ tight, carnival-sounding production, the album unfolds like a house of mirrors, exposing a world where chaos and complicity blur together. Its purpose is both to confront and to awaken: Bambu’s lyrics are a call-to-action, recognising the systems closing in around us, and with both urgency and humour, he asks us to respond with courage and collective resistance.
In the world of hip-hop, Bambu stands among the best when it comes to conscious rap. Many fall into the pit where the lyrics perhaps hit hard, but the beats and overall sound are monotonous. On They’re Burning the Boats, Bambu creates a clear concept, and Fatgums’ production keeps you interested and locked in throughout.
Each song is a banger, and each song has its own sound, while still contributing to the thematic style of the album. Sometimes it’s Bambu’s lyrics that make you stop in your tracks and rewind, and other times it’s Fatgums’ production that makes you turn it up and pay attention to the resistance that bursts out from the speakers.
Bambu has been in the game for a minute now. A constant throughout the album is Bambu’s recognition of his time on this earth and how many of his compatriots look the other way. On Their Problem, Not Mine, he raps: “Yeah we might be dads now/old Filipino shaved head, bear belly, tattoed, look like we used crayons/bad knees and high blood/my kids don’t understand the land and time I come from/but if you really from the time you say you from then why you quiet/you’d be louder than a riot, instead of genocide denying, aight”
On Complicit, Repeat Bambu confronts everyday people, who are simply struggling to get through life. He recognises that it ain’t easy taking a stand, but we all must come together and do what we can. “nightmares on the back of all that money you split/you ain’t a killer, but consider how complicit you is/nah this ain’t a shot, this ain’t even a diss/just be aware of how you live and how complicit you is“.
On the album’s last song, It’s Happening, Now, Bambu raps: “I don’t know how long we ’bout to be here/I know it ain’t forever/that’s why when I rhyme I make it count on every record/even on the throwaway joints I wasn’t into/I made sure you could hear my message really simple/that during my time people were cruel/and murdered other people using capital as a tool/and only just a few can pay attention to my songs/’cause I am a Debbie Downer but I wish I was wrong/I know after I’m gone/it won’t be angels and clouds/but I know I live forever when my songs play loud”
While music is an incredibly powerful form of protest, a tool that helps unite people, a lot of protest music gets ignored. Sometimes the message is perhaps too accusatory, too direct, too one-sided, hypocritical, or perhaps not empathetic enough. Or the music behind the message is perhaps not catchy enough. Whatever it is, it’s hard to create the perfect blend of activism and art. To me, at least, Bambu hits all the right spots with his music. Through witty, humorous lyrics that also hit harder than a slap in the face, he gets his message across and makes a real connection with the listener.
This one is an album of the year contender for me, that’s for sure.
“I do not call for violence against what the people deem authoritarian enforcement agencies, I do not call for violence against them, but I do advocate for the people’s right to choose what they feel needs to be done to get free of tyranny.” – from the song It’s Happening, Now
Happy New Year comrades, this is DJ General Strike, host of the weekly protest music radio show, Protest Tunes on 91.3 KBCS FM in Seattle, WA. I broadcast 2 hours of radical protest music of all genres and eras every Wednesday at 9 PM. 2024 was an active year for protest music, in light of the Presidential election in the US and the General election in the UK. Many great anti-war songs were also released against Israel’s ongoing war/genocide in Gaza. Over the last year I’ve compiled a playlist of over 800 of these protest songs, which you can listen to in its entirety here, and I’ve made 4 shows on my top protest songs of each season, or what I call Molotov Hot Tracks. I narrowed that high volume of songs down to my top 40 protest songs of 2024. I aired most of these songs on my show last Wednesday, New Year’s Day, which you can listen to an archive of here. I’ve organized these 40 protest songs by genre below for ease of listening (and alphabetically within genre), you can also listen to all 40 on this Spotify Playlist. Without further ado here’s my top 40 Protest Songs of 2024.
Folk
Grammy winning feminist folk-rock singer-songwriter, author and activist. One of the first artists to create her own label in 1990, she is called ‘the mother of the DIY movement’ and has sold over 5.5 million albums on her own Righteous Babe Records. New Bible is an anti-capitalist song, the 2nd single off of her album Unprecedented Sh!t’, Ani’s 23rd release, released July 12th.
Carsie Blanton is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New Orleans, US. Blanton says she “writes anthems for a world worth saving.” About this song this single released May 31st, she said it’s “a “f— the democratic party for sitting on its hands during a genocide” kind of a song.”
Petrie is an English folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leicester, England. She began performing in 2006, but in 2010 the advent of the Conservative-led coalition government influenced her, as a socialist, feminist, and lesbian, towards an increasing emphasis on political songwriting. This track is off of her new album Build Something Better, released March 8th.
Welles, is a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Arkansas, US, who was the frontman of the bands Dead Indian, formed in 2012, and Cosmic-American, formed in 2015. In 2024, Welles garnered attention on social media for authoring and performing satirical protest songs, like this viral anti-war-on-Gaza song, which satirizes common justifications for war.
Seth Staton Watkins is a folk singer from St. Louis, US, who is best known for his renditions of traditional Irish rebel tunes. He records and produces all of his music in his home studio. He released “Stand Together”, a rewrite of his 2023 song “It’s Not the Poor Folk”, this November in the wake of Trump’s electoral victory.
Sister Wife Sex Strike is a Seattle-based anarchist folk punk band comprised of Sister Pigeon and Sister Moth. The band’s name is inspired by a real life sex strike that they went on in 2021. They released this anti-Zionist single on July 4th, off of their new album Sister Wife Sex Change, which dropped August 2nd.
Rock and Roll
Frank Turner is an English punk, folk and indie-rock singer-songwriter who began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primarily acoustic-based solo career following the band’s split in 2005. This anti-authoritarian song off of Turner’s new album Undefeated, is a rewrite of an old unreleased song of his, called Practical Anarchist.
MC5 (Motor City 5) was an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The last two members of the band, Wayne Kramer and Dennis Thompson passed away this year, while they were working on their all-star comeback album Heavy Lifting which features guests like Tom Morello, Slash, Vernon Reid, and more. The album was released this October, timed to the band’s posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie. Primal Scream had been performing live from 1982 to 1984, but their career did not take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. This epic nine minute track compares settler colonialism in Ireland, Scotland and Palestine.
R&B/Pop
This Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author performs solo and with rock band Super Furry Animals, who obtained mainstream success in the 90s, and the electro-pop band Neon Neon. He’s considered a figurehead of the era known as Cool Cymru, a Welsh cultural movement in music and film in the 1990s and 2000s. This anti-government corruption song is off of his newest album Sadness Sets Me Free released last January.
Shaina Taub is a Vermont-raised, Brooklyn-based composer, singer-songwriter and performer. This song is newly written for Taub’s musical about the Women’s Suffrage Movement, “Suffs” upcoming Broadway run. Taub wrote the music, lyrics, and book for the musical and also stars as Alice Paul in “Suffs”.
The 74 year old living legend, had his first Billboard No. 1 hit at the age of 12, and has won 25 Grammys (the most by any solo artist). This is Stevie’s first new song since 2020, and it encourages people to get involved and seize the crucial moment that the U.S. and the world find themselves in right now.
Sunny War is a Blues/Folk/Punk guitarist from Nashville, US. “Walking Contradiction” is the first single from her album Armageddon In A Summer Dress, which drops on 21st of February 2025. Sunny War wrote its songs after moving into her late father’s 100-year-old house in Chattanooga. A big fan of Crass, the influential British anarcho-punk collective, she recruited Crass’ Steve Ignorant to perform on this track.
Reggae/Ska
DJ Pamplona is an independent audio engineer from Rio de Janeiro Brazil, of the group Dub Ataque. He is now based in Florida where he owns his own studio and record label, Pamplona Beats. This anti-war-on-Gaza song features Soom T, a Scottish reggae singer of Indian origin.
Zion I Kings, a family of producers and musicians from three respected roots production houses, finished and released this posthumous track by the late Peetah Morgan in July. Peetah, who passed away on February 25th, was the lead singer of Grammy-winning contemporary reggae band Morgan Heritage, formed in 1994 by five children of reggae artist Denroy Morgan.
The Undercover Hippy is UK based singer-songwriter Billy Rowan, who spent 7 years DJ’ing and MC’ing on the Drum & Bass circuit, then started The Undercover Hippy as a solo act in 2007 and now plays with a 5 piece band. 100% of proceeds from this track are donated to Palestinian charities: Sanabel Team, The Sameer Project and We Are Not Numbers.
Jazz/Spoken Word
aja monet is a poet, writer, lyricist and activist based in Los Angeles, US. She was the youngest poet to ever hold the title Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Champion at the age of 19 in 2007. This song was inspired by Langston Hughes’ 1938 poem, “For the Kids Who Died.”
Meshell Ndegeocello is a singer-songwriter, poet, and bassist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She’s been nominated for 11 Grammys, and won two. This epic 8 minute track is off of her new album, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, which pays homage to the eminent writer and activist, James Baldwin.
Hip-Hop
Abe Batshon is a Palestinian American songwriter, artist and entrepreneur born in San Francisco and raised in Hayward, California. This single, released in February about the war in Gaza, also features Lebanese singer Samer and Detroit-based Palestinian-American hip hop artist Sammy Shiblaq.
Arrested Development was formed in Atlanta, US, in 1988 by rapper and producer Speech and turntablist Headliner. They were the first hip hop band to win a Grammy for Best New Artist, in 1993. This track is from their new album Bullets In The Chamber, released in January, which is so full of great protest songs, it was hard to pick just one.
Brother Ali is a blind, albino rapper, community activist, and member of the Rhymesayers Entertainment hip hop collective from Minneapolis, US. In this track Ali, who is Muslim, and anti-zionist Jewish producer unJUST tackle Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people. They released this single in March, off of their collaborative album Love and Service which came out in April.
Eddie Mack is an Arab-American Hip-Hop artist from Detroit, US. Mack engineers and produces and writes all of his own music. His distinct sound combines vintage Hip-Hop tracks with contemporary production methods. This sequel to his October 2023 protest song against Israel’s war on Gaza, The Sound Of War, was released in August.
Harris J, AKA “the Muslim Justin Bieber” is a young British Muslim artist whose debut album, Salam, was released in 2015. This song features rapper Lowkey, an Iraqi-British rapper and activist from London. These two London-based Muslim artists collaborated on this anti-war track against Israel’s war/genocide in Gaza.
Kimmortal is a Queer Filipina emcee and singer-songwriter based in Vancouver, BC. Their debut album Sincerity was entirely crowd funded by her community. In this follow up to Kimmortal’s November 23’ single against Israel’s war on Gaza, Stop Business As Usual, they feature Toronto R&B/Hip-Hop artist Phoenix Pagliacci of TRPP and transgender American-Peruvian rapper Bobby Sanchez.
The Seattle star rapper released this follow-up to his viral Spring protest single on September 20th, and performed it live for the first time in Seattle the next day at the Palestine Will Live Forever benefit concert. The track features Palestinian-American artists Anees and Amer Zahr, Gaza-born rapper MC Abdul, and the LA Palestinian Kids Choir. Just like the first song, Macklemore is donating the proceeds from “Hind’s Hall 2” to UNRWA.
Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, MC Lyte first gained fame in the late 1980s, becoming the first female rapper to release a full solo album in 1988. She’s back after ten years with a brand new album, called ‘1 of 1’. In this song MC Lyte, Stevie Wonder, and Common address systemic injustice and the pervasive impact of racism on African Americans.
Rapsody began her career at North Carolina State University, where she joined hip hop collective H2O and its spinoff group Kooley High, despite not having rapped before. She launched her solo career in 2008. This song off her new album Please Don’t Cry is about the police murder of Breonna Taylor, and samples Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff”.
Metal/Hardcore
Formed in LA in 1990 and fronted by rapper Ice T. who first established himself as a rapper then co-founded the group with lead guitarist Ernie C out of their shared interest in heavy metal music. Body Count have been credited for paving the way for the rise of rap metal and nu metal, even though Ice-T does not rap in most Body Count songs. This track critiques the American two party system, comparing the Democrats and Republicans to warring gangs.
FEVER 333 is a political rap-core trio formed in Inglewood, US, in 2017 by members of Letlive, Chariot and Night Verses. Originally named The Fever, 333 represents the band’s three core principles of community, charity and change. This anti-police brutality single, released in August, is off of their new album ‘Darker White’, released on October 4th.
English rapper and songwriter of Indian origin. Hyphen had an usual start in music – he was working in finance and feeling depressed and lacking purpose, and started making music to help him deal with depression, which gave him a new sense of purpose. He released this immigrant rights, anti-1% single this October.
Ren is a Welsh songwriter, musician, rapper, producer, director and disability rights activist, he has had chronic Lyme disease for over 10 years. He was a member of the indie hip-hop band Trick The Fox and the British busking band The Big Push. He released this anti-capitalist single on October 18th.
Serj Tankian is an Armenian-American musician and activist, best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, keyboardist, and occasional rhythm guitarist of the heavy metal band System of a Down, formed in 1994. Tankian says he wrote this song during the early days of System of a Down. It’s about the Armenian genocide that took place during WWI, and how it still impacts his family and the broader Armenian community.
Tom Morello, is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, and political activist, best known for his tenure with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. This new solo single, off his upcoming solo rock album, Morello calls the song “a salute to the transformative power of music”. It features a guest guitar solo by his 13-year-old son, Roman Morello.
Punk
Destroy Boys are a teen punk band from Sacramento, US. Their name was taken from words that singer Violet Mayugba wrote on her chalkboard at home during a period of relationship troubles. This feminist anti-assault/harassment anthem from their new album, Funeral Soundtrack No. 4 features fellow feminist punks Mannequin Pussy, from Philadelphia, and Scowl from Santa Cruz, California.
Dropkick Murphys are Celtic punk band from Massachusetts, US. About this song, frontman Ken Casey says, “For nearly a decade, the division between red and blue, right and left, has grown deeper, darker and uglier…Nobody enjoys this more than the billionaires, who are making record profits off the blood, sweat, and tears of the working class… They love it when we fight amongst ourselves, because their biggest fear is us joining together to come after them…THE REAL ENEMY.”
Punk rock band from Santa Cruz, US, formed in 1986. Known for their energetic sound and thought-provoking lyrics, the band briefly disbanded before reuniting in 2012. They released this protest single as a call to action ahead of the U.S. election on October 22nd.
Lady Parts is a band created for the British sitcom, We Are Lady Parts, created, written, and directed by Nida Manzoor, who alongside her siblings, also writes and supervises the music for the show. The series follows a British punk rock band named Lady Parts, which consists entirely of Muslim women. This track is off the show’s soundtrack, We Are Lady Parts (Music From The Original Series – Seasons 1 & 2) released May 31st.
Lambrini Girls are a queer feminist three-piece punk band from Brighton, UK, known for their energetic, emotive lyrics and political commentary. About this single released in February the band said “’Gods Country’ is our long, overdue call-out of the government and rise of the far right… We have the audacity to call our country ‘Great’. So we ask you, ‘Are you sure?”
This 7-member Irish Folk Punk Band from Germany, started out as a duo, playing in small barns and pubs as “The O’Reillys,” and a little later mutual friends joined them as the “Paddyhats” and turned the duo into a full band. This anti-fascist song is “directed against political and social currents that endanger democracy – and calls on people to speak up, rise up and fight together for freedom and justice.”
Pop punk band with grunge influences founded in Baltimore, US in 2019, after the three members met at Johns Hopkins University. Pinkshift has used their platform to advocate for racial diversity, Palestine, and gender inclusivity. This anti-Trump song began its life as an “anti-fascist poem” written by vocalist Ashrita Kumar.
