Craic, culture and chaos: Inside the world of Kneecap

“What’s the craic?” DJ Próvaí says as he comes into the frame. He’s the first Kneecap member to join the call and his face is slightly obscured because of the poor signal. Still, I can see more of DJ Próvaí, 35, than his signature Irish-tricolour balaclava usually allows. We chat about swimming spots on the Irish coast and, before long, Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap (or Naoise, as he introduces himself) appear on the screen. “How’s the form?” Mo Chara asks in his thick Belfast accent. The Northern Irish hip-hop group may have a packed schedule between touring their latest album, Fine Art, and promoting their eponymous, autobiographical(ish) film, but I soon observe that the bandmates aren’t too busy to take the piss out of each other. “Nice look,” Mo Chara, 27, says, noticing the Brylcreem lathered thick on Móglaí Bap’s hair. The styling product is something I’m familiar with — my Irish dad went through tubs of the stuff during my childhood. It’s only now, though, that I realise its cultural significance. “It’s a rite of passage in Ireland to wear too much Brylcreem and half a bottle of that Joop! perfume,” Móglaí Bap, 30, says, before Mo Chara — taking a well-timed drag of his rollie — interrupts: “We were very flammable growing up.”