From July 19-21 KnockanStockan return to their site overlooking the Blessington Lakes. We’ve taken a closer look at the hip hop artists performing at the festival this year.

From hip hop to weirdo indie, KnockanStockan have proved once again with their 2019 line up that they’ve got their finger firmly on the pulse of Irish music. The festival are always on the look out for envelope-pushing sounds, and over the last few years it has been hip hop where a lot of creative risks have been taken.

Ahead of the festival, we look at some of the rappers and DJs you should check out if you’re heading down. We’ve left off artists like Nealo, JyellowL, Kneecap, Tebi Rex, Luka Palm, Mango x MathMan and others who have been getting a lot of attention of late and decided to focus on some of the artists you may not be aware of. Turns out a lot of them are from Limerick. Go figure. Oh, it’s also in no particular order.

Citrus

In May Michael O Donoghue, aka Citrus Fresh, aka Juicy Jeff, aka Trevor Tart, aka Zesty Supreme released his debut EP, via Limerick’s PX Music. With standout tracks like ‘ANTENNA’, the ‘Early Days/Late Nights’ project showed that we have a promising young MC on our hands who isn’t afraid to fuck around with rap convention.

Across five tracks, the rapper “plays out the aftermath of a failed relationship and gives us a glimpse inside the Citrus mind-set as he overcomes this common struggle”. We’re looking forward to seeing how well he translates his unique flow to a live setting.

Strange Boy

We’ve been keeping an eye on the MC formerly known as Jonen Dekay for a while now. After seeing how much love he has in his hometown of Limerick when he performed at a District party with the Prescription crew a while back, he’s since proved why he’s established himself as a firm favourite in the city.

A feature on Berlin-based, Irish singer-songwriter and producer delush’s latest track ‘It’s Alright‘ and a show-stealing verse on the final ‘Somewhere in Ireland’ video solidified his place as one of the country’s most underrated talents.

Craic Boi Mental

Is there another artist in Ireland with as big a cult following as Craic Boi Mental? It seems he has the strength of the entire Irish music scene behind him, with big names constantly sharing his music and shouting him out.

He’s beginning to be as prolific as the likes of Lil B too, dropping tape after tape, with his most recent outing ‘Diaries of a $quickhead’ featuring the above summer anthem. We interviewed the enigmatic artist back in February, click here to check that out.

Hazey Haze

Another artist who shone as part of the ‘Somewhere in Ireland’ video series, Hazey Haze was part of Limerick rap group SameD4ence until recently powering forward as a solo artist.

He has one of the most distinctive voices in Irish rap, as we’ve said before, think Meechie Darko from Flatbush Zombies if he grew up on Ireland’s South West.

Mankyy & Clerk 5

We were first introduced to Clare-native Mankyy when he dropped his ‘Character Development’ EP on New Year’s Day of 2017. He’s since featured on our Pieta House compilation alongside regular collaborator Aswell, releasing a full length project on the back of that. He continued his collaborative work for an EP via Unscene Music with Cork rapper and beatmaker Spekulativ Fiktion, plus linking up with Ennis rapper Clerk 5.

For Mankyy’s set at KnockanStockan he’s calling on Clerk 5 for a collaborative set, with the duo set to show the raft of Limerick heads that Clare can step up to the plate too.

Click here for the full KnockanStockan line up and to grab tickets.