KNEECAP – Smugglers & Scholars

KNEECAP are back with “Smugglers & Scholars”, the second single from their upcoming album FENIAN, out April 24 via Heavenly Recordings. Premiered on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music 1 show on February 24, it follows “Liars Tale” and arrives with the full weight of everything the Belfast trio have been through in the past year.

The track opens on a thick, low-end bass riff that pulls from Detroit hip-hop, sirens running underneath while Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap trade verses over DJ Próvaí’s production. The title plays on Ireland’s old epithet “Land of Saints and Scholars” and flips it — saints become smugglers, scholars become fighters. “Ya think it’s all poetry and clovers”, they rap, “when it’s raincoats and police Land Rovers / Salt of the earth, looking over their shoulder, someone shot in turn, chopper hovering over.” It’s a blunt correction of the postcard version of Ireland. The band described it as “a track that’s reminiscing on Revolutionary times in Ireland, driven by a hopefulness, when the working class, academics and good people everywhere united and took action in search of a better future”.

If you need the full backstory — Mo Chara’s terror case, the Coachella fallout, Keir Starmer, all of it — we covered it when “Liars Tale” dropped in W05. “Smugglers & Scholars” is the follow-through: same defiant energy, different angle.

FENIAN was produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, Shame) and features collaborations with Lankum’s Radie Peat (“Cocaine Hill”), Kae Tempest (closing track “Irish Goodbye”), and West Bank-based rapper Fawzi (“Palestine”). Out April 24 via Heavenly Recordings.

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Tracklist:

1. Éire go Deo
2. Smugglers & Scholars
3. Carnival
4. Palestine (ft. Fawzi)
5. Liars Tale
6. FENIAN
7. Big Bad Mo
8. Headcase
9. An Ra
10. Cold At The Top
11. Occupied 6
12. Gael Phonics
13. Cocaine Hill (ft. Radie Peat)
14. Irish Goodbye (ft. Kae Tempest)

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Tour Dates Europe:

• Apr 23 – Kingston, UK – Circuit
• Apr 24 – Brighton, UK – Chalk
• Apr 25 – Bristol, UK – The Fleece
• Apr 26 – Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
• Apr 28 – Dundee, UK – Live House
• Apr 29 – Edinburgh, UK – Liquid Rooms
• Apr 30 – London, UK – TBA
• May 29–30 – Belfast, IE – AVA Festival
• Jun 6 – Barcelona, ES – Primavera Sound
• Jun 8 – Bilbao, ES – Santana 27
• Jun 9 – Madrid, ES – La Riviera
• Jun 11 – Porto, PT – Primavera Sound
• Jun 13 – Neuchâtel, CH – Festi’Neuch
• Jun 15 – Milan, IT – Magnolia, Unaltrofestival
• Jun 16 – Bologna, IT – Sequoie Music Park
• Jun 17 – Rome, IT – Cavea, Auditorium Parco Della Musica Ennio Morricone
• Jun 18 – Bari, IT – Fiera del Levante
• Jun 20 – Attica, GR – Terra Vibe Park, Rockwave Festival
• Jun 24 – Helsinki, FI – Allas Live
• Jun 27 – London, UK – Crystal Palace Park
• Jul 1 – Gdynia, PL – Open’er Festival
• Jul 2 – Roskilde, DK – Roskilde Festival
• Jul 4 – Werchter, BE – Rock Werchter
• Jul 18 – Plovdiv, BG – PhilGood Festival
• Jul 20 – Istanbul, TR – KüçükÇiftlik Park
• Jul 30–Aug 2 – Waterford, IE – All Together Now
• Aug 12–16 – Winchester, UK – Boomtown Festival
• Aug 28–30 – Reading / Leeds, UK – Reading & Leeds Festivals
• Nov 6 – Esch-sur-Alzette, LU – Rockhal
• Nov 9 – Stockholm, SE – BK
• Nov 10 – Oslo, NO – Oslo Spektrum
• Nov 20 – Paris, FR – Le Zénith