Steve Earle, yes. And Sinead O'Connor in her better moments. Also, rap music--like an earlier generation of reggae--has a lot of the protest spirit that's missing in other genres. Much of it also panders to the market's desire for vulgarity and consumerism/materialism, and that makes the genre as a whole appear less squeaky clean and inherently virtuous than, say, young Bob Dylan with an acoustic guitar. But listen to Public Enemy's record _It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Me Back_ for an example of what I mean by rap protest music.
Where have all the protest songs gone?
In light of all the problems the world faces today it occured to me that no one in the folk scene or heaven forbid the rock world are writing songs about war,famine,and you can fill in whatever ills you please into the garbage heap.Has the music arts become so safe and sterile and corporate that no one can hear their still small voice and raise it?