K'naan

When K'naan took the stage at the 2010 Junos to accept his Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year he looked like just another star shining brightly under the pop glare. It was easy to forget that not so long ago his mother was braving the war ravaged streets of Somalia, trying to get her family out.

K'naan grew up in Somalia, known as both the “Most Dangerous” place in the world and as the “Nation of Poets.”. These contrasts were K'naan's musical genesis. The grandson of Haji Mohamed, one of Somalia’s most famous poets, and nephew of famed Somali singer Magool, the emcee is creating his own musical path through reggae, funk, pop, soul and, above all, hip-hop.

“I’m not interested in being mediocre,” declares the rapper. “If there’s not a necessity to what I’m doing, I just wouldn’t do it. If I don’t have something to add to the conversation, I’m just not gonna talk.” Luckily for us, he has plenty to say. Utilizing everything from folk guitar to the actual Hammond B3 used on Bob Marley’s Exodus, the emcee deftfully finds a balance between earnest tales of growing up and clever, braggadocio rhymes straight out of Big Daddy Kane’s rhymebook. It’s this mix, both musical and lyrical, that earned his 2006 debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher a Juno award for Rap Recording of the Year, a BBC Radio 3 Award, and nomination for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize, Canada’s equivalent to the Shortlist Music Prize.

On his latest album, Troubadour, events like these don’t need to be glorified or exaggerated for the sake of art. “I think there are some people that are struggling in hoods [in Canada and America], but it is so much harder and so much more violent [in Somalia],” says K’NAAN. “If you want to be like, ‘I’m from the hood. We got it rough. We got gats,’ I think you should know the alternative exists. I’m speaking in the same language of hip-hop which decidedly speaks about rough neighborhoods. So if there is a place for rough neighborhoods, then here comes the Mother of Rough Neighborhoods.”

Certain that it was only a matter of time before her family met the same fate, K’NAAN’s mother would travel daily through the firefight to the U.S. embassy in the hopes of securing visas for her and her loved ones. Despite daily denials, she persisted, and on the last day the U.S. embassy was in Somalia, received visas to leave for America. “You can’t even describe it,” says K’NAAN. “It is the most sensational, liberating feeling. There was the weight of a world of hope on your shoulder that has suddenly landed. It was only then that I started to get this certain value of life that I never had before.” With little possessions and no knowledge of English, K’NAAN and his family boarded the last commercial flight out of Mogadishu for New York before settling in Toronto.

Troubadour represents the sum of these experiences and more. Having spent the better part of the last two years traveling the world, taking his message directly to the people , soaking in everything from Bob Dylan to Fela Kuti to and Mos Def , Troubadour is the sonic document of an artist who has a lot to share, but clearly has a lot more in the coming years. For anyone who’s said that hip-hop has nothing left to say, Troubadour proves that it all depends on where you look..