Irish children’s drum & bass rap track, ‘The Spark’ becomes viral hit: Watch

A drum & bass track created by a youth rap initiative in Cork, Ireland has gone viral this past weekend.

‘The Spark’ was featured in a post on X announcing Cruinniú na nÓg 2024, an annual “national free day of creativity for young people” in Ireland, and has since amassed over eight million views across the internet.

The song was created by young rappers from the Lisdoonvarna Crew and Rhyme Island, a youth rap project run by Kabin Studio, a music and creativity-focused nonprofit in the Knocknaheeny suburb of Cork. The kids – who range from aged nine to 12 – worked with a local producer named GMCBeats to write and record ‘The Spark’, with support from government initiative, Creative Ireland.

Both groups then teamed up to shoot the accompanying music video, which features the youngsters rapping in bucket hats and sunglasses in a few familiar spots around Cork city. Check out the video, which was filmed and edited by Seán Downey, below.

“The response has been amazing,” producer GMCBeats, real name Garry McCarthy, told The Guardian on Monday. “The kids’ energy and positivity has inspired people. It’s a really catchy song.”

The idea for the track came about in March during one of Kabin Studio’s weekly workshops, McCarthy continued: “We were looking to work with something upbeat and put on a drum’n’bass track. We found the beat and started coming up with chant and chorus ideas.”

These ideas were developed further by the crew during an Easter holiday camp, he explained, before being taken to a refugee centre in neighbouring town, Lisdoonvarna, County Clare, where more children helped to complete it.

‘The Spark’ – which features a bouncy drum & bass beat alongside its catchy bars – has caught the attention of music fans across the globe in the days since its release.

“Some Irish primary school kids made a tune and there is zero legitimate reason for it to go this hard holy shit,” one X user wrote, whilst another called the track “the song of the summer.”

The song has become the unofficial anthem of the annual Cruinniú na nÓg (Gathering of Youth), which will hold over 1,000 of free creative events for children and teenagers across Ireland. The initiative started in 2018 and will be held on Saturday 15th June this year with the theme of ‘Dare to create’. Find out more about the event here.

Rhyme Island run workshops during Cruinniú na nÓg and beyond encouraging kids to express themselves creatively and gain confidence through rap music. Find out more about their mission at www.rhymeisland.ie.

Listen to ‘The Spark‘ by Lisdoonvarna Crew and Rhyme Island below.