Meryl Streek in session for John Kennedy at Radio X on October 11th of this year.
Jumping into some social consciousness raising provided by Irish Rapper/Punk/Avant Garde artist Meryl Streek.
Emerging on the scene in 2022, Streek has been making waves, charging up audiences and expressing the plight of inner-cities – addiction – poverty, loss of self-respect – all those things artists generally never put together in creative ways, but something which Meryl Streek has basically his reputation on.
Why he is not considered Rap is a little baffling, since his message clearly was what Rap was about in the early days; talking about life on life’s terms and those everyday tragedies that run riot in the inner cities. Meryl Streek has picked up the ball and run with it.
Even though much of what he expresses has to do with situations in Ireland; a country fairly torn to pieces by violence and unrest over the years, his sentiments ring true pretty much all over the world, which is why Meryl Streek is such a potent force in the area of contemporary Music.
Although America is running the risk of being torn apart at the seams through division and hate run ragged, it hasn’t been enough of a catalyst to bring about a movement of creative expression or music of protest in that regard. I wonder why.
I don’t think listening to Meryl Streek is for casual background – it’s visceral but at the same time cathartic, but they both fairly demand attention and dare you to be part of the solution and not the problem.
For all you may blanche at listening to these live pieces, most from his latest album, Songs For The Deceased (slate to drop on October 25th), it is not meant to make you feel comfortable and rosy. And you may wonder what this subject matter is doing in a song.
We sometimes forget that much of the real purpose of music, as in most of the Arts and creative pursuits of expression, is to convey the sense of outrage against those things we feel are wrong in our society.
So pop Meryl Streek on the player and give a listen.
