K'NAAN Press
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February 19 2009 Future hip-hop from African-born optimist Somalia-raised, Toronto-based rapper K'NAAN thinks like Bob Marley, flows like Eminem and mixes like African music with conscious hip-hop, unabashed pop and even metal. The results are usually catchy and interesting: On "ABCs," K'NAAN contrasts North American ganster fantasies with his war-torn childhood, trading verses with old school MC Chubb Rock, and then rocks out with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett on "If Rap Gets Jealous." Over the timely upbeat funk of "Dreamer," he sees the utopia of John Lennon's "Imagine" through a hip-hop lens: Troubadour is K'NAAN's unique vision made real. - BARRY WALTERS |
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February 19 2009 An African rapper who has seen enough rough stuff to make 50 Cent look like Hannah Montana Rappers go on and on about their hard-knock hometowns, but when K”NAAN says his “city code is lock and load,” he’s repping a hood so tough it requires U.N. military intervention. The 30-year-old MC fled civil-war-ravage Somalia in his teens (for New York, then Toronto), and he somberly picks through the emotional wreckage on his first U.S. release. But he also comes armed with a Bob Marley-like knack for turning strife into sweetness, cheery but rarely dinky singing and rapping, and a self-deprecating wit that revels in his outsiderness: He apologizes for the mild knit-cap-and-rap-rock beats by joking that buying Kanye West tracks would’ve left him with nothing to send the folks back home. And whether he’s lamenting immigration hassles or imagining himself a depressed American kid fighting in Iraq this Muslim fan of Biggie and Bruce Lee has a common touch. He’s a universal soldier, not an exotic novelty. - JON DOLAN |
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If growing up in a tough hood makes you “real” in the hip-hop world, then K’NAAN has cornered the market on credibility. The MC was raised in Somalia’s most dangerous region: Wardhiigleey, “the River of Blood.” “The government targeted this neighborhood, tried to destroy it, because the rebels always came out of this zone,” says K’NAAN (born Keinan Warsame). “But we were just children running around, trying to survive.” It was while dodging the soldiers’ bullets that killed his friends that he discovered hip-hop. His father, who fled to New York when K’NAAN was seven, sent him rap albums—notably, Eric B. & Rakim’s. “It was what my countrymen had done for thousands of years, but in this urban, new form,” he says. The music taught him English and planted the seeds for his own style: a fusion of traditional African folk music and socially conscious, street-hardened hip-hop. In 1991, as the Somali government collapsed, K’NAAN’s mother secured a travel visa. After a year in Harlem, they moved to Toronto, where K’NAAN released his first album, Dusty Foot Philosopher, in 2005. With this month’s major-label follow-up, Troubadour (A&M/Octone), K’NAAN, 30, is set to invigorate a scene burned out on braggadocio posturing. Featuring Mos Def, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, and Damian Marley, the album interweaves traditional Somali chanting and samples from decades-old Ethiopian jazz with club-friendly beats. While his rhyme style draws comparisons to Eminem’s, K’NAAN’s lyrics have more in common with Bob Marley’s. At the behest of friends Damian and Stephen Marley, K’NAAN recorded most of Troubadour at the legendary Tuff Gong studios and the Marley family home. Being there reminded K’NAAN of something crucial: Write what you know. “I was with Damian, having tea, and this older man with long dreadlocks rides by on a bicycle. Damian looks at me and says, ‘You know who that is? You know the song “No Woman, No Cry,” when Bob says, “And Georgie would make the fire light”? That’s Georgie!’” Bob was right: In this great future, you can’t forget your past. - DAVE ALEXANDER |
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February 2009 Somalian-born rapper K’NAAN talks about the pain of being a refugee, and coming to terms with a different kind of Hip-Hop story. If voice boxes and catchy chorus club bangers leave you feeling exhausted, let me introduce to you Toronto based MC K”NAAN. A refreshing voice in Hip-Hop, K’NAAN is an artist with a tremendously inspiring story to tell. Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, dodging bullets and living in poverty was an everyday struggle. K’NAAN was just a teenager when he and hiss family escaped during the height of a civil war. It was K’NAAN’s mother’s persistence in obtaining a visa from the US Embassy, which helped them flee. Escaping on the last available commercial flight, K’NAAN, alongside his mother and brother, left for New York City, eventually settling in Canada. When discussing the culture shock K’NAAN experienced relocating as a refugee, he spoke of the relief in not having to hear gunshots: “It was nice not having artillery fire near your ear every five seconds, my eardrums got a break.” K’NAAN left a war-stricken city for a world of opportunity at a very young age. Having to adjust to an entirely new way of living, K’NAAN later battled with posttraumatic stress disorder. “I visited doctors but refused to be medicated because my mother and I were not believers in Western medicine. My first songs were written for me to come to terms with my disorder. I literally wrote melodies and words, carving the pain into songs.” With K’NAAN’s second album, titled Troubadour, due to be released soon, it’s obvious that his outlet for healing led to a musical success story. Troubadour is an album that displays raw emotion coupled with genre-bending song composition. Although K’NAAN is considered to be a Hip-Hop MC, he does not restrict himself to the genre. “I don’t feel like a hostage to the genre, I feel I contribute to it. I honestly don’t have assimilation tendencies: my interest is in making the best music I can possibly make. Whether it’s lyrically or musically, I want it to be something interesting and new. Hip-Hop is my home, but it isn’t my only place.” K’NAAN is a storyteller utilizing his voice to capture an audience and take them on a journey through his past experiences. Artists Damian Marley, Chubb Rock, Mos Def and Adam Levine of Maroon 5 all make appearances on the album. If you’ve been looking for a breath of fresh air, look to Troubadour. |
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January 2009 Pop & Hiss offers a look at some of the artists we expect to make noise in 2009. Why him?: Though it’s popular in Europe, African hip-hop has not yet found its footing in America beyond the elegant gangsterisms of the Senegalese-born, New Jersey-based singer Akon. This year, a Canadian might be the one to break the intercontinental barrier. Kaynaan Warsame was born to one of Somalia’s most prominent artistic families in 1978 and grew up in Mogadishu as that city was torn apart by civil war. Immigrating to Toronto with his family as a teen, he soon turned to rap as a way to articulate his experience. His light-stepping but tough rhyming style is infused with the rhythms of his homeland, and his subject matter is both political and playfully personal. What's next?: K’naan’s 2005 debut album, "The Dusty Foot Philosopher," won a Juno (the Canadian Grammy) for best rap album; next month A&M/Octone Records will release "Troubadour," which was mostly recorded at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studio with help from guests such as Damian Marley, Mos Def and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. If Kenya’s favorite son, Barack Obama, could win the hearts of America, why not this sharp-witted Somali stylist? - ANN POWERS |
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January 6, 2009 Somali Rapper K'Naan Schools American MC's News from Somalia usually involves violent warlords, or pirates hijackingships off the coast. Other than that, average Somalis don't have much of avoice. But a rapper from Somalia named K'Naan is trying to change that, and inthe world of hip-hop, he's become an artist to watch. K'Naan grew up in Mogadishu, on what he calls "the meanest streets inthe universe." In one song on his new album, he calls his hometown the"risky zone," full of pistols and Russian revolvers. "The song's called 'ABCs,' " K'Naan says. "And it's about howbeing born in a certain place changes everything, your destiny. I got the kidschoir singing, 'They don't teach us the ABCs / We play on the hard concrete,'and for us, that is very true." Somalia is one of the poorest and most violent countries in the world.Malnutrition and clan warfare are rampant. According to Amnesty International,some 6,000 civilians were killed in fighting in 2007 alone. K'Naan says he wantsto use his music to raise consciousness about what's happening there. "The people of Somalia just do not have a voice," he says."They are to me the most forgotten people in the world." The rapper left Somalia as a teenager in 1991 with his mother and olderbrother. The country was in a civil war involving multiple fighting factions. "Mogadishu was burning. The government is falling," he says."And all the embassies are packing out, and my mother is able to get visasto the U.S." New Life In North America His family eventually settled in Toronto. Eighteen years later, K'Naan isestablishing his name in Canadian and American hip-hop. His first album, 2006'sThe Dusty Foot Philosopher, was a hit with critics here and abroad.His latest, Troubadour, features Mos Defand DamianMarley. The L.A. Times recently listed K'Naan as an artist towatch in 2009, while The Guardian called him "powerfully low-key,theatrical [and] witty." K'Naan writes in a variety of music styles. But before he moved to NorthAmerica — before he spoke any English — his first love was American rap. "I came to the door / I said it before / I never let the mic magnetizeme no more," K'Naan raps, before saying, "That was Eric B and Rakim[from] Paid in Full. I used to say it just like that. But, of course,I didn't know what 'door' meant." K'Naan could not be mistaken for an American rapper: For one thing, he has akind of vintage Bohemian look. He says he doesn't think that American rap hasmuch credibility, because even the toughest American neighborhoods aren'tnearly as dangerous as Mogadishu. "Where rocket-propelled grenades are fired around you on a daily ... aguy bragging on TV talking about how gangster he is?" K'Naan says."For us, it's more a source of entertainment. It's more like a comedy orsomething we watch. Say, 'Oh wow, that's kind of cute of American gangsters.'But it isn't hardcore, it isn't that bad. Let's get things in perspective, you know?" Lately, K'Naan has been talking about the Somali pirates who've beenhijacking ships from Western countries off the Somali coast. Because, he says,there's more to that story, too. |
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