Photo Credit: Marv Watson
On May 3, 2025, the Grammy-nominated hip-hop group, Public Enemy, used their set at the RiverBeat Music Festival as an opportunity to share their claim of “Free Palestine” to their audience. The music festival took place in Memphis, Tennessee from May 2 through May 4. They played at the Tom Lee Park when they decided to stay on-brand and be politically outspoken, according to an article from NME. While they held their reserved political opinions on the president, they still declared their support for the people of Palestine. They were playing their song, “State of the Union,” which was released back in 2020, towards the end of President Donald Trump’s first term and the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests.
Last month, during Coachella, the hip-hop trio, Kneecap, made controversial comments concerning Gaza during their set. The comments caused a bit of an uproar and led to a wide-spread criticism. There was criticism from celebrities like Sharon Osbourne and the amount of criticism also affected their career. They cancelled some of their shows, were removed from festival bills and the counter-terror police in the United Kingdom announced that they would be investigating videos from their previous gigs.
Public Enemy has not only expressed their views on Palestine, but has also tried to raise money for the victims of the wildfires that were happening in California in January. They visited some of the displaced families and they also set up a GoFundMe as an effort to raise money for the victims of the fires.
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