The rap scene in Dublin is a rare and unusual beast. From the few rap gigs I’ve been to in Dublin, it attracts the crowd of die hard fans and a multitude of young performers. The new documentary ‘Broken Song‘ tries to give you a flavour of the scene, introducing you to some of its members.  Broken Song will open at the IFI on November 15th and Axis Ballymun on Nov 27th. It premiered at JDIFF 2013 and won the Audience Award and the Dublin Critics Circle Discovery Award there.

GI, Costello and Willa Lee are street poets, hip-hop artists and songwriters from north Dublin. For these young men self-expression in the form of poetry, rap and song has become a spiritual experience. Their aim is simply to articulate the chaos that surrounds them and to fight it with their words and voices alone. Along the way it has become their identity, their religion and, as they claim themselves, they are its high priests.

In the end, the place where they live and their words are one and the same, constantly in flux, full of darkness and light. It is proof that these suburbs – that have bred darkness, murder and hate – have also inspired poetry and these unlikely artists are using words alone to fight back.