Rap music gets a bad rap. Our parents tell us it’s loud noise with too much cursing. Radio stations and dance clubs play only mainstream rap, materialistic music about bitches and “gats.” Drugs and “bling.” Music so devoid of any real message, it often seems that being offensive is the main purpose.
At some point, somehow, the true art of rhyme was abandoned and henceforth replaced with superficial words mixed with overused, repetitive beats.
Thankfully there is good news for all hip-hop and rap fans that share in these concerns. Just when it seemed that rap music was beyond redemption, Kanaan Warsame, or simply K’naan, appeared on the scene. He actively reinstates the intention and origin of hip-hop music by using his poetic rhymes as a lyrical weapon.
He draws his main inspiration from a war torn childhood in Somalia. His music is spine chilling and uplifting while attempting to teach and entertain. He truly represents the voice of the global struggle.
K’naan is both a poet and a rapper.
“So what’s hardcore?” K’naan asks on his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher.
“Really, are you hardcore? Hmm.-
We begin our day by the way of the gun,
Rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,
We got no police ambulance or fire fighters,
We start riots by burning car tires,
They looting, and everybody start shooting,
Bullshit politicians talking about solutions,
But it’s all talk, you can’t go half a block without a roadblock,
You don’t pay at the road block you get your throat shot…”
He was born Kaynaan Warsame in 1978. His name translates to “traveler” in Somali and he is a refugee now residing in Ontario, Canada. K’naan spent part of his childhood in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, where he lived in the district of Wardiihigleey. This area is more commonly referred to as “The River of Blood” due to ongoing political conflict and violence that continues to this day.
K’naan’s father left Somalia ahead of his family and moved to New York to find employment. With the money he sent home, he included rap albums for K’naan. Through this musical medium, K’naan taught himself to speak English by studying the hip hop and rap diction of American artists such as Nas and Rakim. He then copied the phonetics of their lyrics and style, even though he could not comprehend the actual meaning of the songs.
In 1991, civil war broke out as the Somali government collapsed. K’naan was fortunate to have his visa approved in the nick of time and was able to take the last commercial flight out of the country before the U.S. embassy closed it’s doors. He was reunited with his father and other relatives in Harlem, New York City and they eventually moved to Rexdale, Ontario where there is a large Somali-Canadian community.
K’naan dropped out of high school in the tenth grade and traveled throughout Canada, rapping at open microphone events. In 1999 he befriended a Canadian music promoter who got him a gig at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees where he performed a spoken word piece in criticism of the United Nations and their failed aid missions to his home country.
Fortunately for the young artist, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour sat in the audience and was extremely impressed with K’naan’s courageous performance. Soon after the show, N’Dour invited him to contribute to his 2001 album, “Building Bridges.” Because of his addition to N’Dour’s project, he was taken along and featured on his worldwide tour.
In the next few months, K’naan worked on more United Nations events and performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He met a Canadian producer who helped him create his debut album, “The Dusty Foot Philosopher,” in 2005. This first album slid under the pop culture radar. He opened shows for Damian Marley’s Welcome To Jamrock tour, and kept a small yet diehard following over the next three years.
With his most recent release of “Troubadour,” K’naan is now widely embraced as a worldwide hip-hop celebrity and being welcomed with open ears by everyone from National Public Radio to MTV. His second album, released in early 2009, resonates much catchier rhythms and lyrics than his previous tracks and sounds to be catering to a much different crowd. This scene is the North American popular culture, and so far he is having ample success.
K’naan has collaborated with artists such as Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, The Roots, Dead Prez, Damian Marley and Pharoahe Monch.
Staying true to his poetic roots, K’naan raps as if he’s teaching a course on hip-hop 101. He aims to educate and inform with his clear and clever rhymes. He infuses the mix musically with hints of reggae and authentic African drumbeats.
Some of his new tracks mirror his first album in essence and originality while others ooze with a feeling of exceedingly aged cheese and make the listener long for authentic songs past filled with hand drums and raw “riddims.” This evidence of smoothing over the bare instrumentals with synthesized sound “goo” and frequent choral “la la la’s,” shows K’naan’s evident migration from raw, rootsy goodness to lame ass radio routine.
Although he remains true to the art of rhyme, he falters in successfully “trodding” through the muck which some of us refer to as “mainstream music,” or “radio rap.” Fame and acclaim will continue to lift this newfound superstar up, hopefully without tainting his highly original style. Regardless of what the future may hold, K’naan is an inspirational individual with endless talent and a grassroots, global message.
www.npr.org keyword: k’naan
www.mtv.com/music/artist/knaan/artist.jhtml
www.knaanmusic.com
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