The New Sound of K’naan
His name means traveler. In his first album, K’Naan called himself the dusty foot philosopher. He said the dusty foot philosopher is someone that has never been in a plane but can tell you what’s beyond the clouds. Though in his recent album titled, “Troubadour, he no longer calls himself that, he still speaks as if he is preaching.
Hip-hop is a broad category. It includes music, culture, and style. If I had to label K’Naan’s style it probably be alternative hip-hop. That is, music that refuses to fall into the stereotypes of gansta, hardcore, or party rap. Now rap and hip-hop are not the same thing. Rap is a style of hip-hop, hip-hop is a style of music, they are not interchangeable.
K’Naan is a Somali-Canadian. He was born in northern Somalia but grew up in Mogadishu, the capital city. When the civil war broke out in 1991 many intellectuals had left the country to places like London and New York City. K’Naan’s father left for New York and became a cab driver. K’Naan’s mother petitioned the United States for a visa and it was approved on the last day the US embassy remained open in Somalia. The family lived with relatives in Harlem until moving to Toronto, Ontario. He left school at grade ten to travel and sing. He still lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. Though in his thirties he looks so young, a poster child for people who grow up in hard times.
People tell me he is similar to this artist or that artist. I have not found one other artist like him. Yes there are similarities between him and artists like k-os and Michael Franti. But K’naan is unique. He himself said “I got my own sound. I don’t sound like the rest, and even my attire and my choice of dress”. I first heard K’Naan on NPR. I make sure to listen to anything and anyone that has something to say about Somalia. There are so few good things that come out of Somalia these days that K’Naan was an inspiration. I had never liked or listen to rap or hip-hop. I felt that to listen to the music and to enjoy it was to conform to traditional black stereotypes. K’Naan proved to me that hip-hop has something to say and should not be neglected. What can only called as in the true spirit of hip-hop, K’Naan collaborates with a number of artist including Chubb Rock, Damian Marley, Nelly Furtado, and Mos Def.
K’Naan speaks to an audience that has experienced injustice, hardships, and personal struggles. As he says in T.I.A (This is Africa) “I take rappers on a field trip any day, they’ve never been opposite real clip anyway. I know where all the looters and the shooters stay. Welcome to the city we call Doomsday”. News flash to American raps who think they have it hard, Africans have it harder. K’Naan tries to tell the world about Somalia and the conflict that has stagnated the nation. I don’t know if people are listening. As he says himself “they love me in the slums and the native reservations”. These places are where people that are marginalized and misunderstood are found. It some sense I fear that he is preaching to the choir. But in defense I must say that K’Naan’s songs are a sort of protest. Music is more than a few notes on the guitar. Music is a language. And K’Naan speaks the language not only as a hip-hop artist but also a poet. His lyrics are not simple and stark but often melancholy and disturbing, at the same time being true. When K’Naan sings about all the things wrong in the world he sings it from the perspective of hope and pride. Its constructive criticism.
The so called “World Music” genre is an arbitrary category as it is. It is as dynamic and diverse as what can be considered “African Music”. K’Naan has proved this by combining styles of funk, rap, and traditional music. With the ever popular sound of the drum, and the soul of Somalia, the language of the poets, K’Naan has created his own unique sound. African musicians are breaking out of their mold. Just as K’Naan experiments with American rap lines, other African musicians are extending their influence beyond the artificially created expectation of what African music really is. The first major introduction of African music to the United States was through Paul Simon’s Graceland album in which he collaborated with many artists including the now famous Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The few problems I have with K’Naan’s is his use of language, the use of the word nigger (or nigga) and sometimes you can’t understand what he is saying. In other words not much. He does use bad language but it is used appropriately. Many people disrespect these words and overuse them with out meaning them. When K’Naan swears he does in a way that emphasize his position and tells that he is angry and frustrated. His slight accent it is readily understood to most even though English is not his first language. And in Somali the sound ‘p’ does not exist so it often comes out sounding like a ‘b’. On the use of the word nigger, I can not understand why anyone would use this word black, white, or otherwise.
The Dalai Lama once said “Never give up, develop the heart, too much energy in your country is spent developing the mind instead of the heart”. In the most poetic sense I believe that is what K’Naan does. His music is not just entertainment. Its a discussion between philosophers, you and him. An artist should speak to you. And if they possess the gift of tongue and heart it will seem as if they are speaking only to you. K’Naan proclaims that he does not speak of Africa in general but of Somalia specifically because he was born into it. Though we share different experiences from similar circumstances, I feel that K’Naan speaks of Somalia the way I have thought of it. That though we are not proud of what is happening there, we are still proud to be Somali. It may seem like a simple idea but it is very important these days after hear so much negative news from Somalia of warlords with AKs and pirates with RPGs.
While I try to approach this analysis objectively, I am ware that I am biased. I am not a critic, I am a fan. And as such I realize that there may be things about K’Naan I don’t like, now and in the future, but K’Naan is only a man. He is obligated to live his life anyway he sees fit. His music might be a misleading representation of his character but his messages hold universal truth. They can not be denied. For example Bob Dylan’s famous song “The Times They are a Changin” influence on that
generation can not be denied. Even if he says himself that he sang and wrote these songs purely because no one else was. What K’Naan says is revealing of the situations of refugees and other displaced people. To make his case he speaks from experience. That experience and his words of expression of that journey can not be denied.
K’Naan maybe my favorite artist but I recognize his faults. The first time I heard K’Naan live was in December at Higher Ground. The same day I had a math exam at the time the performance was suppose to begin. However K’Naan was the last of the opening acts. The main performance was by some guy with the stage name Matisyahu. Apparently he was a Jewish musician who blends styles of traditional music with hip-hop, rock and roll, and reggae. But I came to see K’Naan. I arrived an hour and half past the scheduled time. But K’Naan was just getting on stage. I have listened to his his songs a hundred times (probably more) but I never expected what came about in that room. The sound and energy of his live performance was far beyond expectation. After his session my mother and I waited by his bus to get his autograph. After an hour and a half in the freezing December wind, my mother left. All this time I was clenching his first album “The Dusty Foot Philosopher”. Even though his band mates kept saying ‘he’ll be right out, he’ll be right out’, he never came. I held out for another hour. Though I kept thinking “How many fans could he possible have in Vermont? Wouldn’t he be glad of just two?”. I don’t really blame him. I am disappointed I didn’t get to meet K’Naan. But I don’t consider him an idol to looked at as an example or to be criticized at every step he makes. I think of him as a man who has something to say and he says it with his voice. I do not know the man. I am a fan of his music because that is what I know. His thoughts and words about Somalia speak to me.
In 2006 I got his first album, The Dusty Foot Philosopher. In June of that year I went to visit my uncle, who had travelled from Somalia to meet me. Much of our time was spent travelling around in the same taxi cab. And as the radio signals went in and out of tune you would hear spontaneous outburst of 50 Cent and to my surprise K’Naan. It surprised me to hear the same thing half way around the world. But at the same time I was touched to see that music has no borders.
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