A rap video featuring a group of Irish pre-teens, plus children who live in refugee accommodation, has been hailed “the banger of the year” after amassing almost nine million views on social media within days.
The youth rap project Rhyme Island released the video clip for their song, The Spark, prior to the national day of free creativity for young people, Cruinniú na nÓg, which takes place next month. A group of children aged 9 to 12 from the “Kabin Crew” in Cork and “Lisdoonvarna Crew”, a group who live in refugee accommodation in Co Clare, produced the drum-and-bass anthem with the lyrics: “Think you can stop what we do … I doubt it … We got the energy, we’ll tell you all about it … I searched for my spark and I found it … Everybody in the crowd start bouncing.”
RTE posted the video on May 16 and it quickly gained international attention, racking up 8.8 million views and being dubbed “the song of the summer”.
The video — produced on a shoestring budget — was created by Rhyme Island, a youth rap project based at the Cork non-profit Kabin Studio, in collaboration with Creative Ireland. Garry McCarthy, of the Kabin Studio, said the idea for the track came up during a weekly workshop.
“On the day we felt the kids needed a bit of energy so one of our assistants suggested putting on a drum-and-bass beat,” he said. “We found that beat online and instantly we knew this is a belter and we just started coming up with chants there and then.”
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McCarthy added: It’s amazing to see the recognition that it’s getting around the world.”
