Minnesota musicians have responded to the trauma of Operation Metro Surge the way artists often do when communities are hurting: by making music. After one of the darkest, heaviest winters in recent memory, marked not only by brutal cold but by intense ICE raids, peaceful protests by tens of thousands, and the tragic deaths and detentions of community members at the hands of federal agents, local artists have turned to song not only as protest, but as a form of healing.

A few short reviews of songs to come out of Minnesota in 2025 that are not available on Spotify.