Spitting across the barricades: hip-hop and cultural resistance in post-conflict Belfast

Belfast, the epicentre of a bicultural society, has seen cultural resistance perpetuate longstanding ethnic divisions between Catholics and Protestants during and after the Troubles. While Belfast’s early post-conflict hip-hop culture largely remained immune to sectarian differentiation, recent years have seen a growing trend of ethno-politicisation in the city’s hip-hop scene, a trend driven by the emergence of two prominent local artists–Young Spencer and Kneecap–who come from either side of the ethnic divide and engender oppositive forms of cultural resistance for change and resistance to change. This article critically examines the themes and semiotic resources these artists employ to articulate their respective forms of cultural resistance. It concludes by briefly considering this novel trend in Belfast’s hip-hop scene within the wider context of a divided society where cultural resistance and differentiation have sustained the communal divide well into the post-conflict era.