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Since the 1990s, working-class Irish hip hop MCs have criticised the Irish social welfare system through their rap lyrics. Like most global hip hop, Irish rap uses oppositional politics to offset the stigmatising ideas of class that are propagated by the dominant classes in society, especially negative stereotypes surrounding social welfare recipients. Although not recognised within literary Irish Studies, these lyricists are producing working-class counter-narratives to classist anti-welfare sentiment in Irish society through their poetic lyrics. This article draws from Irish and international Hip Hop Studies scholarship to argue that Irish rap should be regarded as working-class Irish poetry that contains intrinsic literary and cultural value. Focusing on the work of a Louth-based hip hop group, TPM (Taxpayers’ Money), this article reads Irish rap as poetry. Using close textual analysis, I examine how TPM’s rap-poems use adversarial messages and working-class aesthetics to protest and critique anti-welfare hegemony in Ireland.

“Taxpayers’ Money”: Subverting Anti-Welfare Sentiment through Irish Rap Lyrics