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Born in 1978 (one year after the civil war began in Somalia), K’Naan (meaning “traveler”) Warsame grew up in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu, specifically the violent and war-torn district of Wardhiigleey (aka the “River of Blood”). As a seven year old, he was introduced to American hip hop as his father sent him hip hop albums from the United States (the first English he ever learned were the rhymes of the likes of Nas and Rakim). As an eleven year old, he watched his three best friends murdered by armed gunmen. Two years later, he was awarded a visa (after years of petitioning by his mother) and a chance to avoid a fate similar to his friends’ as he caught the last commercial flight out of the country. Arriving in Harlem, NY, he barely had a chance to introduce himself to the culture before his family made the move to Rexdale, Ontario so as to join a large community of Somalis. It was here that he perfected his English and passionately began his craft of emceeing, where he soon became one of Somalia’s first emcees to achieve international acclaim.

Fast forward to 2005 and K’Naan, now residing in Toronto, drops his first LP, The Dusty Foot Philosopher as a Canada only release. Produced by Canada’s Jarvis Church and his Track and Field production unit, it is an album full of “urgent music with a message” as K’Naan himself describes it. Track such as “Soobox,” which also served as his first video, are exemplary of this sound. Rhyming the verses in English and hooks in Somali, K’Naan proceeds to democratically call out the gunmen, warlords, and everyone else playing any role in furthering the war in Somalia. By the way, “Soobox” is Somali for “come out” or “come out with it” and the chorus of the track translates to:

You’ve exasperated the people (so come out with it)

The troubles have increased (so come out with it)

You’ve spilled the blood (so come out with it)

You’ve burned the root of the earth (so come out with it)

But, trust me, it’s a lot more powerful listening to him say it as opposed to reading me type it. Listen to or download the “Soobox” MP3 here:

mp3: “Soobax”

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Alright, what else can I tell you in a few paragraphs that will help give you an appreciation, or at least an introduction, to this immensely talented poet/emcee. He’s worked numerous events for the United Nations, although he maintains he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as a “political emcee”. As he explains, he talks about reality and if reality happens to be political, then so be it. He’s worked with artists ranging from Pharoahe Monche to Dead Prez to Damian Marley. Here’s a video clip of him performing “My God” live with Mos Def at BB Kings in New York City:

One of my favorite aspects of K’Naan’s flow is his ability to sound both impossibly laid back, yet energetic and passionate at the same time. And I hate to say “so and so sounds like such and such.” However, it won’t do you much good to say the obvious “K’Naan sounds like himself” if you’re not familiar with K’Naan himself. So when I say K’Naan’s delivery and enunciation is reminiscent of Eminem’s (or we can flip it and do the inverse, Eminem’s flow and verbal dynamics resemble K’Naan’s), it is important to keep in mind that K’Naan truly does not sound like anyone but himself. Regardless, check this link for his video for “Struggling” and see if you agree or disagree with me:

It is also interesting to note that K’Naan points to Nas and his gifts for description and vivid storytelling as direct influences. Only difference is while Nas described low income housing projects in Queens, K’Naan describes the typical African ghetto.

One of K’Naan’s most hyped projects rose out of a firsthand confrontation with racism while on tour in Sweden. Apparently, K’Naan was refused entrance backstage (despite his performance pass). In the chaos that ensued, K’Naan and his staff were physically assaulted and Sol Guy (friend and manager) was wrongly thrown in jail for the night. He decided to deal with the situation by borrowing the instrumental from Lupe Fiasco’s “Kick Push” to record his own version, titled “Kicked Pushed,” bringing light to the events and racism that continues to penetrate our society on so many (blatant and subtle) levels. Check the video:

K’Naan does a remarkable job of avoiding gangsta clichés. No song of his captures this more eloquently than his astutely critical “Hardcore,” in which he analyzes what it actually means to be “hardcore” in hip hop and further picks apart the vague, ambiguous concept of “keeping it real” in terms of the context of authenticity within a genre of music. I’m not sure I understand all of the words I just used in that sentence. K’Naan sums it up much more concisely and poignantly in his jaw dropping, smirk creating, eye opening, laughter generating, ‘oh snap’ of the year line

I’m a spit these verses cause I feel annoyed,

And I’m not gonna quit til I fill the void,

If I rhyme about home and got descriptive,

I’d make 50 Cent look like Limp Biskit

Oh snap. K’Naan quickly follows it up by closing his final verse with a vivid look into the tragic state of his home country:

We begin our day by the way of the gun,

Rocket propelled grenades blow you away if you front,

We got no police ambulances or fire fighters,

We start riots by burning car tires,

They looting,

And everybody starting shooting…

To view a clip of him performing this song live, again at BB Kings in NYC, click the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie096CuEGsc

If you’re digging K’Naan’s first album and looking for more joints, check for his Dusty Foot on the Road, a collection put together while he toured the globe.

Extra bonus K’naan goodie. Watch this live performance of his uplifting track “Smile”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrxS-OAWeP4

No, the second Canadian feature is not K’naan. Sorry. We’re saving him for Somalia, regardless of his current whereabouts. In fact, K’naan and today’s emcee have BEEF, believe it or not. At least K’naan seems to think so. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to K-Os.

Phonetically “chaos” yet an acronym for “Knowledge Of Self,” Kheaven “K-Os” Brereton has three studio albums under his belt– all of which could make a strong case for being the most creative, diverse, and wholesome hip-hop LP of the past 5-10 years. Feel free to challenge me, but listen to the music first.
His 2002 debut Exit may have received the most attention in the U.S.; I remember getting into K-Os after seeing the following video on MTV2 (well, YouTube doesn’t have the video…. but this is the song):

Since Exit, K-Os has grown into himself even more as an artist and has experimented in the realms of reggae, rock, funk, and so on. Here’s a taste from his second album, The Joyful Rebellion. The track is called “Man I Used to Be,” and the video features some really wild breaking.

And, to bring things full circle, this next video is from the final installment of what thus far is a K-Os triptych. “Born To Run” from the the 2006 LP Atlantis.

In case I’ve yet to reveal my giant emcee-crush on K-Os, I’ll end things with a real quick story. I was in Montreal last year, and I popped into a record store to find that he had a big display sandwiched between like displays for The Game and some Shit-stain-on-the-face-of-hip-hop Southern Rapper. They like K-Os as much as American radio garbage! I was fucking floored. So shout out to Canada for keeping my faith in the direction of a culture I love so much.

Last goodie– mp3: “CatDieseL”

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–Oh, and as for the K’naan beef? Not worth the time. If you really care, more info is here, among other places.

Our friendly hip-hoppers to the North! Perhaps it’s a bit soon to feature North American artists– shoot, we haven’t left the Americas at all yet. However, there are two acts in particular that I want to draw your attention to this week before we really get MAD FOREIGN up in this place. Enjoy some English emceeing while you can.

First up is Nomadic Massive. This is as international as international hip-hop gets. The group, though Montreal based, consists of members with Chilean, French, Haitian, Chinese, Iraqi, and Argentine backgrounds– so yep, the rhymes are multilingual. I’ve even heard of Nomadic Massive referred to as “The International Wu-Tang,” though for now I’m sticking to my stance that the Wu-Tang Clan is still the international Wu-Tang. Also, Nomadic Massive curses a lot less.

mp3: “Nomad’s Land”

Nomadic Massive is among the positive consequences of globalization. While hip-hop culture has always been centered around representing one’s physical hood, the collective has chosen a more ethereal origin. In the Nomadic Massive, visions of universal understanding through hip-hop music make up the common ground on which its members stand (…and perform).

But enough praise for the mission. The music by itself is definitely worth checking out. The following two videos are from the track “Nofy’s Peace” and the Montreal Jazz Festival, respectively. Both give a pretty good introductory feel for the vibrations Nomadic Massive is trying to create.

mp3: “Nofy’s Peace”