Narcy and Redveil Bring the Fight for Palestine to the Booth on “Sword”
In the powerful song, Iraqi Canadian rapper Narcy pays tribute to—and shares solidarity with—victims of the genocide in Gaza.
Iraqi Canadian rapper Narcy has spent his whole career trying to make sense of a senseless world. Every part of his creative output, from his discography to his activism and work as a college professor at Montreal’s Concordia University, is geared toward lifting veils and exposing abuses of power through rap music. Take “Jeff Bezos,” a highlight from his 2021 EP Meme Against the World, where he calls out the Amazon billionaire and breaks down hypercapitalist greed over a brooding horn loop. Narcy’s gruff voice and pointed barbs are urgent without being cloying, an essential balance for the kind of edutainment that is his specialty.
He keeps this spirit alive with “Sword,” from his upcoming album To Be an (Arab), which is dedicated to victims of Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. (All proceeds from the single are being donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.) Montreal producer Sandhill’s beat is made up of little more than strings and choir vocals swelling and contracting, which makes it the perfect backdrop for Narcy and Maryland rapper-producer Redveil to wax about the “beautiful struggle” and “ugly compassion” of the downtrodden. Narcy has nothing but contempt for war machines turning people into profits (“You churn our babies bone down then you sell ’em to Exxon”) and the ways corporations spy on us every day, but he sees hope in the people’s ability to fight back. “What a wonderful world with a dysfunctional swirl,” he says, mixing Salt Bae references with Islamic parables in his bird’s-eye view.
Redveil previewed this song during his set at last year’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, which went viral after he called for a ceasefire and shared of the names of hundreds of Palestinian children who had been killed in the early days of the genocide. A year removed, with airstrikes still bombarding Gaza and now Lebanon on a near-daily basis, the song has only grown in power. “Fighting that fight gon’ keep us alive, it’s youth up in that fountain,” he says, urging listeners to find energy in enacting change as a collective. But for all of Narcy and Redveil’s piss and vinegar, it’s the connection, the solidarity, that gives this song its beating heart. “You ain’t gotta draw that sword alone,” they both croon on the hook before reaffirming themselves and anyone listening: “I ain’t gon’ draw my sword alone.”
