Tag Archives: rap

DJ General Strike’s Top 40 Protest Songs of Winter 2024

April 14, 2024 Halldór H Kristínarson Leave a comment

Greetings Comrades, I’m DJ General Strike, host of the weekly protest music radio show, Protest Tunes on 91.3 KBCS FM in Seattle. I broadcast radical protest music of all genres and eras for 2 hours every Wednesday at 9 PM. Over the last three months I’ve been compiling new protest songs released this year (as I’ve done for the last 3 years). This Winter saw the release of a wide variety of protest songs, most notably anti-war songs against the brutal wars in Gaza and Ukraine, songs inspired by the upcoming US presidential election, as well as a few protest songs harking back to the 1920s. I aired most of these songs on my show this Wednesday, which you can listen to the archive of here. I’ve organized these 40 protest songs by genre below for ease of listening, you can also listen to all 40 on this Spotify Playlist. Without further ado, here’s my top 40 Protest Songs of Winter 2024.

Folk

David Rovics – Song for the Houthi Army.

Rovics is a Portland based activist singer songwriter, and anti-Zionist Jew from New York. This track is off his new album about Israel’s war in Gaza, Notes From A Holocaust, released in January. While there are a lot of great protest songs on this album, I think this one about the Houthi Red Sea blockade stands out the most.

Joe Solo ft Commoners Choir- A Better Way

Joe Solo is a musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough, UK. His musical odyssey began in 1987 fronting the pop-punk band Lithium Joe. He described this song as “a big protest singalong in defiance of the times we live in.”

Grace Petrie – Fixer Upper

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 her new album Build Something Better released March 8th.

Cheekface – Don’t Stop Believing

Cheekface is an indie folk-rock band based in Los Angeles, formed in 2017. Some of Cheekface’s fans refer to themselves as Cheek Freaks. This song about alienation in late stage capitalism is off their new album It’s Sorted released in January.

Sean Brady – Child of the Troubles

Seán Brady is a well known entertainer and recording artist on the Irish circuit in Britain and a regular performer in venues across europe. This heartfelt anti-war song draws on his personal experience growing up during the 30 year period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles.

Maddie Morris – Marsha P Johnson

Maddie Morris is a British queer feminist folk artist from Leeds. She wrote this song for LGBT History Month to commemorate Stonewall activist Marsha P Johson, about whom she said “Marsha is an activist I have looked up to for a long time, and I wrote this piece about the way it’s easy to feel ‘wore down’ by the constant micro-aggressions and homophobia experienced by queer people in Britain today.”

Aoife O’Donovan – War Measure

Aoife O’Donova is folk-rock singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter from Boston, best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still. She also co-founded the Grammy-winning female folk trio I’m with Her. This track is off her new album, All My Friends, a commission to celebrate the centenary of the 19th amendment, inspired by the life and mission of suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt.

Rock

Real Ones – Stop The War

Real Ones, also known as Reelones, is a folk/rock band from Bergen, Norway. The band was formed in 1994 when the founding members were 14 and 15 years of age. They describe this song as “in sympathy with those who go to bed each night not knowing whether they or their loved ones will be wiped out by a bomb before sunrise. “

Average Joey – Indifference

Average Joey is a traveling songwriter and folk musician from Pennsylvania. He now lives full time on the road touring and performing music. This track about systemic indifference and individualism is off his new album Impermanence released in February.

Gossip – Real Power

This Indie rock band was formed in 1999 in Olympia, Washington, by vocalist Beth Ditto. All three band members are originally from Searcy, Arkansas; the drummer moved to Olympia to attend Evergreen State College and the rest of the band followed. This protest song is the title track of their new album just released March 22nd.

Peter Garrett – Meltdown

Peter Garrett is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician, best known as the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, which he joined in 1973. This climate change protest song is off Peter Garrett’s second solo album (backed by his band The Alter Egos) The True North.

R&B/Pop

Carsie Blanton – Empire

Carsie Blanton is a singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New Orleans. Blanton says she “writes anthems for a world worth saving.” This anti-imperialist song is off her new album After the Revolution. About this song she said “Who says you can’t write a pop song about imperialism, American hegemony and the decline of capitalism”.

Shaina Taub – Keep Marching (from the Broadway musical “Suffs”)

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”.

Jazlynn Q & Eddie Mack – My People

Arab-American Hip-Hop Artist, from Detroit, Eddie Mack, released this great compilation album against Israel’s war on Gaza, this February, called The Art of War, featuring many Palestinian and Arab artists. This song is by Jazlynn Q, an 18-year-old singer/songwriter from Miami, via New York, of Palestinian and Dominican roots.

Gruff Rhys – Cover Up The Cover Up

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.

Reggae/Ska

Protoje – 30 Million

Protoje is a reggae singer and songwriter from Jamaica. His mother is Jamaican singer Lorna Bennett ,and his father is former calypso singer Mike Ollivierre. About this song Protoje stated “I’ve been able to witness the transformation of my country over the last twenty years and wanted to make a statement on the Jamaican situation. This song speaks about what is, what was and what can be, as it relates to the quality of life that we experience here in Jamaica”

Jahneration & Capleton – When We Gonna Rise

Jahneration is a Reggae / Dancehall / Hip Hop duo of singers from Paris, founded in 2009. Diversity, Unity and Sharing of Music are their main slogan, which they apply to their lyrics and ways of working. Capleton, is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall musician, also known as King Shango, King David, The Fireman and The Prophet.

Evil Ambition – Soul Rebel Project

Soul Rebel Project are a Reggae/Rock band hailing from Boston. This song features Grammy award winning reggae songwriter, musician and composer MediSun, who is also from Boston, now based in LA, plus Maine-based DJ-Producer duo Green Lion Crew.

Jazz/Spoken Word

Moor Mother – ALL THE MONEY (feat. Alya Al-Sultani)

Moor Mother is a jazz poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia. She is one half of the collective Black Quantum Futurism, and co-leads the free-jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements and the experimental hip hop group 700 Bliss. This track about the history British imperialism is off her new album ‘The Great Bailout’ released last month.

aja monet – for the kids…

aja monet is a poet, writer, lyricist and activist based in Los Angeles. 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.”

The Brkn Record – Cut the Cheque

The Brkn Record is a new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s foundational deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics, with fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and drummer Malcolm Catto. This single calling for reparations for slavery is off The Brkn Record’s forthcoming sophomore album, The Architecture of Oppression Part 2.

Hip Hop

Arrested Development – For Free (feat. April So Lyrical, Configa & Speech)

Arrested Development was formed in Atlanta 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 off 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.

Víctor Jara -Ceschi (feat. R.A.P. Ferreira & Zeta)

Ceschi is a hip hop musician based in New Haven, Connecticut and a member of the punk-hip hop fusion band Codefendants.He is also co-founder of the record label Fake Four Inc. This track inspired by legendary Chilean protest sing-songwriter and activist Victor Jara is the 4th single from Ceschi’s upcoming album “Bring Us The Head Of Francisco False Part One”

Brother Ali – The Collapse

Brother Ali is a blind, albino rapper, community activist, and member of the Rhymesayers Entertainment hip hop collective from Minneapolis. In this track Ali, who is Muslim, and Jewish producer unJUST tackle Israel’s assault on the Palestinian people.

Heems, Lapgan, Saul Williams – Accent

Heems is a rapper from Queens, New York, best known for being part of the alternative hip hop groups Das Racist, and Swet Shop Boys. This anti-xenophobia song, is the lead single off Heems’ new album Lafandar and is a collaboration with veteran slam poet, Saul Williams.

My People – Sean Toure’ (feat. Ras Kass & DJ Face)

Sean Toure’ is an underground hip hop producer/emcee from Baltimore. This black history song features LA rapper Ras Kass of Golden State Warriors and the hip hop supergroup The HRSMN, and DJ Face from True School Corporation and The CrossRhodes.

Frank Waln – Seven

Frank Waln is a Lakota hip hop artist, producer, audio engineer and activist from the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. He has been awarded three Native American Music Awards and received five nominations, both individually and with his group Nake Nula Waun. This track is off Waln’s new album Songs Against Colonialism.

Tonio Sagan & Far Eye House – Country Code Number 1

Tonio Sagan is a Massachusetts born and bred producer, lyricist, and hip hop scholar, and grandson of astronomer Carl Sagan. Far Eye House is a Hip-Hop and reggae producer from Springfield, MA. This protest song against American exceptionalism was released December 29th of 2023, just missing last year’s cut.

Configa, Tommy Evans, Speech – They Are Not Expecting Us to Fight

Configa and Tommy Evans are the world’s first producer-rapper-PhD combo. Configa rose through the ranks as a battle rapper and produced and released his debut album in 2000. Tommy Evans is based in London but was born and grew up in Leeds. This single, taken from the duos forthcoming album “Jolicoeur” also features Speech from Arrested Development.

Abe Batshon – Palestine Will Rise

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.

Sole, DJ Pain 1 – Land of Stolen Milk

Sole, is an American underground hip hop artist from Portland, Maine. He also hosts a podcast about revolutionary politics and radical philosophy called “The Solecast.” DJ Pain 1, is an American record producer and DJ from Madison, Wisconsin. They released this unpatriotic, anti-Trump single March 1st.

Metal

Bob Vylan – Hunger Games

Bob Vylan are an English duo based in London who play a style merging elements of grime, punk, metal and hip hop. Bobby Vylan is the singer/guitarist of the band and Bobbie Vylan is the drummer. Both go by stage names to protect their privacy, and call themselves ‘the Bobs’. This song is about the “economic crisis” happening in the UK, and the hardships faced by those struggling to afford food.

Hacktivist – Crooks and Criminals

Hacktivist was formed when rapper J Hurley began recording vocals over some of metalcore guitarist, Timfy James demos and the tracks were so popular online, they decided to become a band. About this song the band said, “This is a call to question what you’re being presented in politics and media. What dealings are influencing the information you see and the policies which govern you?”

New Model Army – Reload

New Model Army are an English band formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1980 by lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Justin Sullivan, the only continuous member of the band in its 44 year history. While being rooted in punk rock, their songs often sound more like metal, and have always been difficult to categorize. This track is off their new album Unbroken released in January.

Ministry – Cult Of Suffering

Ministry are pioneers of industrial metal and were founded in Chicago, in 1981 by producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and sole original band member, Al Jourgensen. This track is off their new album Hopium for the Masses, released March 1st, which is mostly protest songs, (many of which were released as singles last year). This track is about Putin and the war in Ukraine.

Punk

JER – Say Gay or Say Goodnight

JER is a nonbinary musician, composer,and music educator who hosts the YouTube channel Skatune Network, where theypost ska covers of popular songs. JER is outspoken about the history and present state of ska music, earning the fan nickname “The CEO of Ska”. This track is a protest song against Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

BIFF – KILL ALL THE MEN IN THE GOVERNMENT

BIFF are an Australian Garage Skate band, with strong roots in Melbourne’s rebellious punk rock scene, formed in 2019. This single off their upcoming EP, BIFFTAPE #4, was recorded at a Ukrainian campground in Buxton over a weekend.

Green Day – Living in the 20s

Pop-punk superstars Green Day formed in the East Bay of California in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, together with bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt when they were both 14 years old. This song which tackles many of the issues of the day is off their new album Saviors.

Sham 69 – War of the Words

Sham 69 are an English punk rock band that formed in Hersham, Surrey in 1975. They were one of the most successful early punk bands in the UK. This song about political polarization is from their new album To The Ends of the Earth.

The Menstrual Cramps – Class War

This queer feminist punk band was founded in a broken bedroom when the members were on the verge of homelessness, in Bristol, UK in 2016. They describe themselves as “DIY, loud, queer, anti-fascist, anti-racist, pro-choice, intersectional, and feminist.” This anti-capitalist track is the second single off their upcoming new album.

activism, News

Portraits of exile: Musical resistance to oppression from Iranian singer Faravaz

March 31, 2024 Shouts - Music from the Rooftops! Leave a comment

An imminent prison sentence caused her to opt for ‘self-imposed exile’ in Germany

On the set of the music video for ‘Mullah‘ in July 2023. Photo by Yana Kaziulia, used with permission.

This story is part of a series called “Portraits of exile” that delves into the experiences of Iranian women in the diaspora as they pursue freedom and showcase their resilience. The story comes as a commemoration of the tragic passing of Mahsa Jina Amini, a Kurdish woman who was killed at the age of 22 at the hands of the morality police for not fully covering her hair This incident ignited widespread protests in Iran, which persist to this day despite escalating government oppression.

Many fans got to know Faravaz, a 33-year-old Iranian singer based in Berlin, during her time in Iran. She gained recognition by sharing videos of herself singing and providing singing lessons in Tehran on Instagram. Faravaz became one of the prominent figures among brave young women who, in a country where solo singing in public is forbidden for women, gradually crossed borders in their struggle for freedom.

In recent years, the younger generation in Iran, specifically Generation Z, and particularly young women, have increasingly used social media to challenge the oppressive Islamic regime and patriarchal structures within families and society. This is the same generation of young women who, since the September 2022 “Jin Jiyan Azadi” (Women, Life, Freedom) uprising, have garnered global attention through their bold resistance against systemic misogyny.

In the video below, Faravaz and Justina, an Iranian female rapper in exile, sing about the religious rules of the Islamic Republic in “Fatva,” where singing has been banned for women since the Islamic revolution until now.

From Tehran to Berlin

Driven by her passion and career aspirations, Faravaz eventually transcended the borders of her home country. In 2018, she was invited to Germany for the “Female Voice of Iran” Festival. Although she partially covered her hair while performing in front of the cameras in Berlin’s Villa Elisabeth, hoping to return to her homeland with minimal problems, a piece of news changed her mind, leading her to decide to stay in Germany.

Being a longtime fan and follower of Faravaz on social media, I was thrilled to engage in a conversation at a cafe near Berlin’s central station, overlooking the Spree River, where she shared some pivotal moments of her story. “I had been interrogated and tried in Iran for singing without a hijab, and my case was under appeal. While in Germany, I learned that a one-year prison sentence would be approved, and I would have to go to prison in Iran when I returned,” Faravaz shared with me.

Then, the narrative of the past several decades, since the Islamic Republic regime gained power in Iran, resonated once more as the imminent prison sentence persuaded another Iranian to opt for a life in “self-imposed exile.” Crossing this “border” was no easy feat she told me. “I was shocked. It took me about two years to come to terms with the fact that there was no turning back.”

During those two years, Faravaz navigated the asylum process in Bavaria, Germany. However, before she could resume a relatively normal life, the currents of the COVID-19 pandemic washed her ashore like a piece of driftwood, extinguishing any possibility of returning to the cultural scene. This is why she expressed having lost the “golden years,” both inside and outside Iran.

“I lost four significant years of my twenties in Germany and two important years in Iran during the interrogations and court process,” Faravaz said.

Facing backlash and digital oppression

However, when crossing borders, discrimination and stigma cannot be left behind. By aligning with the MeToo movement, which resonated with influential figures in Iranian cultural fields in 2020, Faravaz, faced severe backlash for speaking out against a fellow Iranian male singer. She became the target of intense hate attacks. She was labeled an “attention-seeking whore” and received disturbing images, including severed heads. Ultimately, because of one of these waves of attacks, Faravaz’s Instagram account, boasting thousands of followers, was removed as a result of mass reports — a tactic employed by Iranian digital armies to silence activists.

“It was like they had closed my office,” she remarked. Although she managed to regain the account, the insecurity never left her — the lingering fear that, at any moment, a misogynistic force could dismantle what she had built as a public figure, whether through mass reporting or alternative methods like bot attacks.

Faravaz’s choice to participate topless in one of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi demonstrations in Cologne, Germany, in October 2022, subjected her to various insults and, in some instances, isolation, yet she believed it was the most authentic way to support a movement against several decades of the regime’s control of women’s bodies. This daring gesture prompted many to inquire about her motivations.

“In Iran, when you are a female singer, everyone keeps asking you, ‘Why don’t you leave Iran?’ They believe that, if you work as an Iranian female singer, the doors to success are wide open to you outside Iran. It is just a myth; either you have to work in an Iranian community, where it is often the case that the atmosphere is more misogynistic than that inside Iran, or you have to enter the world of non-Iranians, where you also need to know the language,” she said.

However, she continued, “In Europe, at least, you can go ahead, which is in contrast to inside Iran, where it felt like I was punching an unbreakable wall.”

Outside Iran, Faravaz did not hesitate to advocate for the right of Iranian women to sing. Female singers in Iran were among the early targets of Islamists following their rise to power in Iran in 1979. After the revolution, many female singers fled Iran, and those who remained were interrogated, imprisoned, and unemployed. Googoosh, the most famous Iranian pop singer, optimistically returned to Iran from abroad after the revolution but could only leave the country and resume her work as a singer two decades later.

The video below, the song “Ey Iran,” is about the oppression of women in Iran and commemorates the suppressed women striving for freedom.

Navigating despair

While serving as the protagonist in the short documentary “My Orange Garden,” directed by Anna-Sophia Richard, which explores the prohibition of women singing, Faravaz shared insights into her occasional despair throughout her journey of activism, describing it as a “product designed by the Islamic Republic to bring about inaction.” She also expressed disappointment on realizing that discrimination against women extended beyond the oppressive regime and persisted within households. “We have to be prepared for the substantial amount of work that will be required the day after the regime’s change,” she emphasized.

One of Faravaz’s latest works is entitled “Mullah,” and features provocative lyrics that rhyme, “I wanna ah with a mullah, make love with a mullah … bang bang with a mullah.” The song serves as a bold statement against the dominant political power that has controlled women’s bodies for decades, compelling them to leave their home country just to have their voices heard as singers.

“Mullah” brought forth a barrage of attacks, ranging from criticism of her body shape to downgrading her activism and the quality of her voice. In an interview with Voice of America, she expressed her frustration: “I am angry and cannot remain calm as the misogynistic society expects women to be. I wonder why I should not be angry; I am filled with so many years of repression.”

In Berlin, Faravaz is not just an Iranian singer; she is an exile, determined to channel her anger into a movement that Iranian women, both inside and outside the country, have shaped through ongoing protests and daily resistance.

This article was written by Maryam Mirza and originally published on the Global Voices website on 20 December 2023. It is republished here under the media partnership between Global Voices and Shouts – Music from the Rooftops! and a CC BY 3.0 Deed license.

activism, News

Icelandic rapper organises a concert, raising funds to get his family out of Gaza

February 21, 2024 Shouts - Music from the Rooftops! Leave a comment

A young rapper from Iceland, with family ties to Gaza, has organised a benefit concert and gotten the help from some heavy hitters from the country’s hiphop scene.

Alexander was born and raised in Iceland and has never experienced life in a war zone. However, his father is from Gaza and now the young rapper’s plan is to raise enough funds so he can travel to the Egypt-Gaza border and help family members to safety, namely his grandmother and his uncle and family.

Alexander’s family members in Gaza are not immediate family and therefore he can not apply for asylum for them on grounds of family unification in Iceland. But after seeing on the news how three Icelandic activists travelled to Egypt to retrieve families out of Gaza, because of lack of effort by the Icelandic government, he thought maybe he could do the same.

For the benefit concert, Alexander got the support of some popular members of the contemporary Icelandic hiphop scene, such as Birnir, Flóni, Krabbamane and others, who are donating their performance to the cause.

If you find yourself in Iceland this Saturday, perhaps to admire the fresh lava, you could do a lot worse then stopping by this concert and helping the Abu-Samrah family get out of harm’s way.

When: Saturday 24 February 2024
Where: IÐNÓ, Reykjavík
How much: 5,900 Icelandic kronas (42 USD, 39 EUR)
Alternative ways to support:
Icelandic ID number: 040991-2049
Account number: 0370-26-010964
IBAN: IS620370260109640409912049
SWIFT: ESJAISRE