Rap, with its daring lyrics and catchy rhythms, has become the battle cry of Iraq’s anti-government protests that have been ongoing since October.

“We, generation of revenge/Revolution of liberators/I don’t carry guns, my weapons are my ideas and thoughts,” Anhar, better known as MC Anhar, raps on his YouTube channel. Young Iraqis take his music to the protests and sit-ins in the capital’s squares.

Until the 2010s, rap had not caught on in Iraq except for a small group of young people. But protests cast a spotlight on both young Iraqi rappers — some of whom reside outside the country — and their searing lyrics that spare none of Iraq’s ruling parties. Some contain thinly veiled insults toward the government officials while others target resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi. They also condemn the involvement of Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr in the demonstrations.

The revolutionary rap pays homage to Iraqi millennials — the generation born between the 1990s and early 2000s — who have been on the streets in 11 governorates in central and southern Iraq since Oct. 1. Nearly 600 people have been killed and more than 22,000 injured in the protests.