Let me tell you about K’naan. His story is truly inspirational.  Having basically boarded the last plane out of war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, his family moved to New York City, and later Toronto to escape the Somali civil war.  Knowing no English, K’naan taught himself by listening to hip-hop albums as an expatriate teenager.  The song “Dreamer” off his February ‘09 release “Troubadour” tells of his young aspirations to become a beloved, touring musician:

“What would it take for a boy about my age to hear cheers in his head upon that stage, and the cheers that would drown out the tears from my brown eyes?”

His journey to that stage was helped along when K’naan landed a speaking gig at the United Nations.  In 1999 K’naan, in a spoken word poetry piece, addressed the failures of the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees pertaining to aid missions to Somalia.  Singer Youssou N’Dour caught the performance and invited K’naan to work with him, thus leading to K’naan’s opportunity to tour the world.

Other artistic collaborations reveal K’naan’s eclecticism. From Mos Def and Damien Marley, to Maroon 5 and Metallica, Somali’s biggest hip-hop artist has worked himself into the American music scene with seemingly little effort.  That’s not to say he’s not a thinker.

It’s obvious to anyone who listens to K’naan’s music that deep sentiment and life
experience drives his art.  While rapping very articulately and thoughtfully, his lyrics can make you think, chuckle, tear up and Caucasian or not, you will bob your head.

But, let’s let K’naan to speak for himself. Here’s some selected lyrics off of Troubadour:

I was so worried, and hurt to see you bleed,
But as soon as you came out the hospital you gave me sweets.
Yeah, they try to take you from me
But you still only gave ‘em some prayers and sympathy.
Dear mama, you helped me write this by showing me to give is priceless.
Take A Minute

Is it true when they say all you need is just love?
What about those who have loved only to find that it’s taken away?
Why do they say that the children have rights to be free?
What about those who I’ve known whose memory still lives inside of me?
Fatima

No magic from David Blane. No painter to paint this pain. No Morgan Freeman to narrate this shame. So, she took refuge in prayer kind of like finding God in a phonebook. It came to her sounding something like a song hook.
People Like Me

A track I’d be remiss to neglect is the clever ending of the album “Does it Really Matter?” K’naan ironically points out typical Hip-Hop trends such as auto-tuning, pitch shifting (known as “the drop”), and writing hooks instead of songs. All this while occasionally imitating other rapper’s style and diction.

Hey, you need a single. Single to make a mingle, something that’s kinda simple. I would hate to call it jingle. A single is a missile; takes you right to the middle of 106&Park and maybe Jimmy Kimmel.
Does it Really Matter

Please check out K’naan’s work at knaanmusic.com.