The Chris Hedges Report Podcast with Hip-Hop Artist Lowkey

There are few recording artists I admire more than Kareem Dennis, the legendary hip-hop artist known as Lowkey.  He uses his considerable talents as a musician to pay homage to the voices and struggles of the oppressed from the plight of migrants that have fled to Europe, to the suffering of Iraqis and Palestinians in the Middle East to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.  His work, including his single “Voices of the Voiceless” with Immortal Technique and “Long Live Palestine,” also known as “Tears to Laughter,” are hip-hop classics. His song “Terrorist,” a searing condemnation of the hypocrisy of Washington and western governments, was swiftly censored by many digital media platforms. In 2011, The Jewish Chronicle described Lowkey’s increasing influence and worldwide recognition as one of the most gifted lyricists in hip hop as a “potential nightmare” for Israel and its Zionist supporters. He has long been a target of the Israel lobby in the UK and the United States, which blocked him from receiving a visa to perform in the United States. The University of Cambridge, under pressure from the Union of Jewish Students and the Israel lobby, postponed his March 8 Zoom talk, “The Israel Lobby’s War Against You.”  He was blocked from speaking and performing at the annual Nation Union of Students Conference in Liverpool. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, weighing in on the censorship campaign against Lowkey, said a few days ago that British universities have “for far too long been tolerant of casual or indeed systematic antisemitism,” adding that he “hope[s] that everybody understands the need for rapid, and indeed irreversible change,” before announcing that the United Kingdom needed a new antisemitism task force “devoted to rooting out” the problem at all levels of the education system. The Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Society says it now fears it will be banned, as have many Students for Justice in Palestine groups at US universities. The British press is engaging in daily smear campaigns against the rapper. And there is an organized effort to get his music removed from Spotify. As the crimes of the Israeli state become more and more apparent to the public, as even leading Israeli intellectuals concede that Israel has cemented into place a brutal system of apartheid, as a new generation of Jews in the west no longer feel an emotional attachment to Israel, the Israeli state has adopted harsher and harsher methods to silence its critics, including an attempt to criminalize those of us who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Joining me to discuss the fierce Israeli censorship campaign that is being waged against him is Kareem Dennis or Lowkey.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrishedges.substack.com/subscribe