It’s hump day P.O.U. Family. This week’s open thread is dedicated to famous African Musicians.
K’naan (born Keinan Abdi Warsame in 1978) is a Somali Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. He rose to prominence with the success of his single “Wavin’ Flag”, which was chosen as Coca-Cola’s promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Besides hip-hop, K’naan’s sound is influenced by elements of Somali music, Ethio-jazz and world music. He is also involved in various philanthropic initiatives.
Born in Somalia, K’naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia’s most famous singers. K’naan’s grandfather, Haji Mohammad, was a poet. He is Muslim, and his name, Keinan, means “traveller” in the Somali language. He spent the early years of his life listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier. When he was 13, K’naan, his mother, and his three siblings left their homeland and joined relatives in New York City, where they stayed briefly before moving to Canada, to the Rexdale neighbourhood of Toronto, where there was a large Somali community and his family still resides. There, K’naan began learning English, partly by listening to hip hop albums by artists like Nas and Rakim. Despite the fact that he could not yet speak the language, the young K’naan taught himself hip-hop and rap diction, copying the lyrics and style phonetically. He then also began rapping. While growing up in Rexdale, K’naan lost many friends to murder, suicide, prison and deportation.
Wavin’ Flag
K’naan married Deqa, a pharmacy technician, with whom he has two sons, born in 2005 and 2007. They divorced before he started touring for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Coca-Cola.
K’naan became a friend and associate of Canadian promoter Sol Guy, who helped him secure a speaking engagement before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999, where K’naan performed a spoken word piece criticizing the UN for its failed aid missions to Somalia. One of the audience members, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, was so impressed by the young MC’s performance and courage that he invited him to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges, a project through which K’naan was able to tour the world.
This project led to his work at other UN events, as well as the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Halifax Pop Explosion. It also helped him meet Canadian producer Brian West and Jarvis Church and his Track & Field team in 2002, who produced his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher, which was released in 2005 to critical acclaim. The Dusty Foot Philosopher was re-released and re-packaged as a “Deluxe Edition” featuring new mixes and a bonus DVD in the United States in 2008.
K’naan toured and collaborated with artists like Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, Will.i.am, The Roots, Dead Prez, and Pharoahe Monch on tours such as Live 8 and Breedlove Odyssey. He also collaborated with Damian Marley on the “Welcome to Jamrock” touring session.
K’naan released The Dusty Foot on the Road, a collection of recording made during his world tour on Wrasse Records.
K’naan rose to mainstream popularity by participating in the 2008 BET Awards Cypher. This was his first appearance on American television. His second studio album, Troubadour, was released in February 2009. The album’s first single, “ABC’s”, was released in late 2008. K’naan’s music has featured in several video games such as Madden NFL 09 (with his song “ABC’s”) and FIFA 06 (with his song “Soobax”). The song “If Rap Gets Jealous”, a re-recording of a track of the same name – with different verses – from The Dusty Foot Philosopher, features Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. In July 2010, he performed a cover of U2’s “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” for iheartradio. In January 24 2012, K’naan released a 5 song EP under the title More Beautiful Than Silence including songs such as “Nothing to Lose”, “Better”, “Is Anybody Out There?”. The songs also include collaborations with Nas and Nelly Furtado.
Jim Welte has said K’naan has “a sound that fuses Bob Marley, conscious American hip-hop, and brilliant protest poetry.” His voice and style has been compared to Eminem, but his subject matter is very different; according to K’naan, he makes “urgent music with a message”, talking about the situation in his homeland of Somalia and calling for an end to violence and bloodshed. He specifically tries to avoid gangsta rap clichés and posturing, saying:
“All Somalis know that gangsterism isn’t to brag about. The kids that I was growing up with [in Rexdale] would wear baggy [track] suit pants, and a little jacket from Zellers or something, and they’d walk into school, and all the cool kids would be like, ‘Ah, man, look at these Somalis. Yo, you’re a punk!’ And the other kid won’t say nothing, but that kid, probably, has killed fifteen people.“
This statement was made to explain his position on the world of difference which exists between where he grew up, and the ghettos of the first world. Nonetheless, K’naan denies that he is overtly political, instead explaining that he “[shows] the state of the world [and] if you call it like it is you’re being political.” His own opinion of his music is that it’s a “mix of tradition and [a] kind of articulation of my own life and [..] my past experiences.”
K’naan has said that he is influenced by Somali music and the traditional instruments of Somalia. His 2009 album, Troubadour, also draws heavily from Ethiopian sources, particularly Ethio-Jazz by Alemayehu Eshete and Tilahun Gessesse.