I feel like so often I'm more disappointed than happy to find out more about artists I like. Personally, Peggy working with Kanye, Yung Lean recently hanging out with Kanye - that stuff was shitty to see
Who are some artists who are based that you appreciate?
Godspeed You! Black Emperor was the first band I really liked when I was a young teen decades ago. And they're still based as hell. I love, for their recent tour, this being their amp:
Yeah I did not expect Avenged Sevenfold of all people to still be out there without having publicly done or said anything egregious. Not like I have any specific suspicions about them, it's just that they seem like they should have gone the way of Trapt.
I still like their stuff but they have some issues. They were doing some NFT stuff/ETH stuff, part of their self-titled was recorded on a confederate flag guitar (meant to be a tribute to Dimebag but still), and of course their Call of Duty tie-ins running cover for what is essentially military propaganda.
I think you laid out exactly why I'm always wary, like they're a hop-skip-jump from becoming yet another chud band. But they haven't yet, so I can give them that credit.
The super villain MF DOOM remains based as his whole career was focused on the craft. People love to meme him up (in mostly good faith in my experience) but I think katz like MF DOOM, J Dilla, and other hip-hops of that vein that put the music first always seem to just be good dudes who wanted to make good music.
In like some radio interview DOOM talks about why he makes music and says like its nice to have music to listen while traveling on train. He loved making music and I would miss him always.
Yeah it sucks that Dilla and DOOM are gone. It’s really a shame that such prolific artists are gone, but likely they inspired a lot of different music and art.
He's been called an anti-semite simply for criticizing Israel, so it would be a real shame if he really is. But this "investigation" was done by the CAA, a Zionist organization that called Jeremy Corbyn an anti-semite and counter-protested pro-Palestinian marches.
So yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if these people who worked with him are Zionists making shit up to push that narrative. It's interesting that he only says these horrible things in private. He doesn't exactly hold back in interviews so you'd think that such a raging antisemite would have let something slip at least once.
Waters appeared on stage in Berlin wearing an outfit that closely resembled a Nazi uniform in May. Performing as the character Pink from the rock opera The Wall, he wore a black leather trenchcoat with a red armband bearing two crossed hammers instead of a swastika.
Embarrassing to even bring this up, since the fascist character he's portraying from The Wall is very clearly presented as a villain.
In the same tour, Waters appeared to compare the killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, to the killing of Anne Frank by projecting the two side by side.
He got a lot shit from Zionist shitheads for this, for daring to suggest that Israel murdering innocents is comparable to Nazis murdering innocents. How dare he!
If you're looking for something positive, check out the YouTuber LittleVMills. He sports a "Protect Trans Lives" patch on his jacket in a couple of videos. LittleVMills creates metal covers and remixes of songs, and I'm quite fond of his stuff. He seems to be a good soul.
Haven't heard anything bad about Tegan & Sara, they're regularly selling merch to raise money for things like BLM and LGBT groups. When I used Twitter I'd occasionally see a fuck terfs tweet from them too.
I only learned about them from the NOFX Creeping Out Sara. I remember some music critics tried to stir up crap and say Fat Mike was dissing them. And Tegan quickly shut them down with the tweet:
nofx + t/s = lots of email/texts/blogs/phone calls. i think punk in drublic is a great record. we r lesbians. sara was creeped. i AM cooler.
I'm gonna say Soul Flower Mononoke Summit / Soul Flower Union. They've literally performed in the DPRK and at Palestinian refugee camps, so if they are anything but supremely based it would surprise me a lot. Otherwise I guess I can mention some DPRK classics like the Moranbong Band, Wangjaesan Light Music Band, and Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble... On the other hand classic bands and musicians from former socialist states I'm a lot more cautious with assuming to be non-problematic. After all, Alla Pugacheva is apparently a Zionist living in a luxury villa in Caesarea now. Yech.
Speaking of disappointment...
The irony of this post is that I was originally gonna mention the band Vømmøl Spellmannslag as my off-the-top-of-my-head pick for "based musicians who I appreciate". After all, their lyrics are explicitly Marxist-Leninist, right? But then I looked it up and uhhhh... The lead vocalist and songwriter for Vømmøl Spellmannslag apparently in the 2010s made and said a bunch of vitriolically racist/xenophobic/islamophobic shit. Just absolutely babybrained shit that you can hardly believe could've been penned by the same hand that in the '70s and '80s was writing praises of Lenin and Mao and saying that Stalin's USSR was responsible for defeating the Nazis. His name is Hans Rotmo; apparently the only party he was ever registered with was the Center Youth, so he wasn't even an organized communist; and eight days ago he came forth with that he's undergoing treatment for severe cancer, delaying Vømmøl Spellmannslag's fiftieth anniversary tour. Fucking womp womp.
The AKP(m-l) already had some babybrained revisionist takes on imperialism, so I guess I should've expected that Norwegian communists in the 1970s would by the 2010s become racist old yarrows. Ugh. Lenin was right when he spoke of "dense, phillistine opportunism" in the European socialist movement.
I wish they'd come back together. Dgmw, Serj solo is fantastic, but help me god Daron sounds like dadrock with his own outfit and I know they'd have some mad shit to say together about the days we're living in now
Kneecap have been doing some cool pro palestine stuff even before Israel's genocide, but like im really impressed with how much they've like stepped up to it and basically used every single opportunity to fundraise and publicly support palestine. Here's one of their cool songs, its called Get Your Brits Out.