Hare Squead get the popular vote
Tallaght boys poles apart from Tory Stewart
Last summer, a hip-hop group from West Tallaght made an unlikely guest appearance in the British Tory party’s leadership campaign, when contender Rory Stewart posted a video (inset) on social media of a painfully awkward encounter with three lads in East London.
The sight of an upper-crust politician trying to ingratiate himself with the Hare Squead rappers – who greeted Stewart politely but admitted they “don’t f*** with politics” before goofing to the camera and walking off – was cringeworthy, but it became a bigger story when Stewart later described them as
“minor gangsters”.
Suddenly the band, who are currently based in London, were being inundated with messages and tweets. “People were outraged about it, calling [the comments] racist,” said Lilo Blues (23), one half of the group alongside 25-year-old Tony Konstone, when they met The Beat back home in Dublin recently.
“He was trying to stereotype us, clearly,” said Tony. “The hand gestures that we threw, they weren’t even gang signs – we were just messing around.”
Lilo was frustrated by the way in which an innocuous, civil encounter had been turned on its head by the politician’s slur. “Where was that energy in person, Rory Stewart?” he said. “We weren’t gangsters when you encountered us. I respectfully said ‘Nice to meet you, sir’. You’re just using us as a pawn for your stupid little campaign. Then the racism jumped out afterwards.”
The band have channelled their
indignation into a new track called Minor Gangsters (Gully), that alludes to the incident and sends up a few common gangsta rap tropes before closing with the words “we ain’t gangsters – we just like making fun sh*t”.
“We wrote the track not too long after that incident,” Lilo said. “I think the song plays on our humour with the whole situation – we’re playing off the stereotype that he placed on us.”
The track is out now and it will also be featured on forthcoming EP Superweird, the band’s first major release since 2016’s Supernormal. Since then Lilo and Tony have lost bandmate Jessy Rose, who left in 2017 due to unspecified “demons” – the duo declined to elaborate further – and been dropped from major label Columbia.
“Jessy was dealing with so much,” Lilo said, “and in that state of mind he made a decision to leave. He’s cool right now – I speak to him almost every day like we’re still in the same band, but he’s chosen a different lane.”
Tony added: “We had to pause and that changed a lot of things, but we’re back on track now and people are showing the love and appreciation that they had from two years ago – that’s the amazing thing.”
The comeback continues with tomorrow night’s show at the Workman’s Club in Dublin, the final date of a five-night European tour. “It’s going to be an intimate show in a small venue for the people that really appreciate us and haven’t seen us for a long time,” said Tony.
Lilo added: “It’s going to be rowdy in there, sweaty – I can’t wait.” l Hare Squead play the Workman’s Club in Dublin on Saturday night.
‘‘ I think the song plays on our humour with the whole situation