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The significance of protest music in St. Louis and American history
By Miya Norfleet0%
4/23/2026, 10:04:25 AM
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The tradition of protest music goes back well before the United States was founded, and it continues today with lyrics that question the state of the world and call out community — and elected — leadership.
Examples can be seen in most contemporary music genres and are local to specific cities, including St.
Louis.
Kayla Thompson, who performs under the moniker KVTheWriter, recently released diss tracks expressing her disappointment and criticism of real estate developer Paul McKee, St.
Louis Mayor Cara Spencer and U.S.
Congressman Wesley Bell.
The song titled “They Walk Among Us” covers tornado response, political lobbying and what Thompson considers unfulfilled promises made during campaigns.
She told “St.
Louis on the Air” that both songs were freestyles inspired by policy decisions that impact her community.
“A lot of times we have to create our own platform to get heard … and I think it was important for me to tell this story as an impacted person,” Thompson said.
“I’m impacted by these folks’ policies and the way they’re maneuvering.
It’s impacting people in my community, literally my neighborhood.
I feel it was important for a survivor to speak about these things.”
Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Washington University, said the tradition of protest music can be found in several music genres and traced to West African traditions of storytelling.
When discussing KVTheWriter’s diss tracks — and subsequent response from Bell, D-St.
Louis County — Eldridge Stewart said: “This exchange sounds very much like a vintage hip-hop battle played out over social media.
It also reminds me of what griots did, and the purposes of griots in our culture dating from West Africa.
This was a tradition of social critique that’s been continued in various forms into the present.”
Eldridge Stewart defined protest music as music that has an additional value added to it by including political statements.
She said protest music in St.
Louis has an extra layer of intimacy between musicians and the powers that be.
“There is a certain level of localness here.
The capacity of folks to really know each other and to call each other out,” she said.
“I think that aspect of St.
Louis really contributes to this discussion, as well as this sort of undertone of the blues.”
Eldridge Stewart said there are also songs that earn the designation of protest music over time.
At the height of the protests of Michael Brown Jr.’s killing, Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” became a staple at rallies and gatherings.
“I think ‘Alright’ is such an awesome example, because it has a meaning that is spoken or sung by the artist, but then every time it’s repeated it accrues different meanings.
People are then able to layer their own meaning on top of that,” she said.
“Even this practice of taking a beat from one artist and then reapplying it to another track, it doesn’t come as a series of percussion and bass rhythms — it also has the meaning of the previous track and that’s carried forward into the new track.”
For more on the history of protest music, including a sample of St.
Louisans’ favorite protest songs and what Lauren Eldridge Stewart considers some of the earliest protest music, listen to “St.
Louis on the Air” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
“St.
Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St.
Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region.
This program was co-produced by Miya Norfleet and Darrious Varner.
The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer.
Layla Halilbasic is our production assistant.
The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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