ACL PREVIEW

For his powerful rap, K'Naan draws from experiences in Somalia

By Deborah Sengupta Stith
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, September 19, 2009

Back in May 2007, Marley brothers Damien and Stephen packed the house at Antone's with a show so sold out that a swarm of desperate fans spilled onto the street outside the club set to mob any scalper who happened to sidle up.

Opening the show was little-known Somali-born rapper K'Naan. With a slight figure, an affable smile and a humble demeanor, the artist captivated the wall-to-wall crowd, blending earnest tales of war's brutality with hip-hop bravado and passionate song. He closed his set with the then-unreleased track "Wavin' Flag," first breaking down the chorus for the audience "When I get older/ I will be stronger/ they'll call me freedom/ just like a waving flag," then launching into a harrowing tale of a youthful outing in Mogadishu that went terribly awry, leaving two of his friends slaughtered in the streets.

As the story built, detailing the artist's journey to North America and his rise to the international stage, a sense of raw cathartic triumph seemed to overtake the room. People of all ages and races sang the chorus with full hearts. Tears flowed freely. It was one of the most powerful musical moments I've experienced in an Austin club.

Born in Mogadishu in 1978, Keinan Abdi Warsame hails from a long line of artists and musicians. "My grandfather is one of the major poets in Somalia and my auntie is probably the most famous singer of all time from the country. My uncles were singers, playwrights and poets," K'Naan says, speaking over the phone from New York City, where he's scheduled to attend a listening party for his new project "The Messengers," a collaboration with NYC-based DJ/producer J. Period.

In his early childhood K'Naan was surrounded by the arts. His family regularly attended plays and concerts by touring musicians. His exposure to Western music was limited. He heard the songs of Bob Marley, stumbled upon a Tracy Chapman album, and (awesomely) owned a copy of "Paid in Full" by Eric B. and Rakim sent by his father, who supported the family from afar as a cab driver in New York City. He was drawn to the dense, poetic strains of Somali folk music.

But K'Naan would never have the chance to explore life as an artist in his native land. By the time he was 8, the rumblings of the Somali civil war began to shake his country and a peaceful youth grew grim. The central government collapsed in 1991 and unspeakable violence and lawlessness spread through the streets. He fled the country with his mother and brother. They escaped on the last commercial flight to leave Mogadishu and landed with an uncle in Harlem. Within a year the family relocated for immigration reasons to Toronto where they currently reside. It was there, in the late '90s, that K'Naan began to immerse himself in hip-hop. Listening to albums like "Hard to Earn" by Gang Starr and "Illmatic" by Nas he began to experiment with rapping himself. Mastering the English language became his obsession.

"In the country that I come from the general obsession is to be articulate," he says. "It's like a thing for Somalis. They say that you reach your manhood or your womanhood through your articulation and it's how articulate you are that defines how far you've gone."

Using hip-hop as a medium he began to exorcise some of the ghastly shadows of war that continued to haunt his mind. He learned to articulate the situation in his conflict torn homeland in a way that was brutally incisive yet deftly humanizing and infinitely compelling. His 2005 release "Dusty Foot Philosopher" was met with wide critical acclaim and won numerous awards in Canada and Britain. It also attracted the attention of one of his integral supporters, Damian Marley, the youngest son of reggae legend Bob whose own release "Welcome to Jamrock" was making serious waves in the hip-hop and world music communities.

"I met Damian first when we decided to tour together," K'Naan says. "I, like everyone else, knew him when 'Welcome to Jamrock' came out and it was for his Jamrock Worldwide tour that he had the idea for us to tour with him. When I asked him how he found out about me, he said that some of the people that he respected, elders and people who were friends of his dad, had told him that he and I had to meet."

Drawn together by common artistic missions the Marleys drew K'Naan into their fold. They became like family, touring together for a good two years. Through the Marleys, K'Naan was introduced to countless audiences and other artists, helping him to establish himself as a serious presence on the hip-hop and world music scenes.

Fast forward to the present. K'Naan's 2009 release "Troubadour" launches with "T.I.A. (This is Africa)" a relentless aural triptych guiding the listener through the gritty backstreets of his home continent. The song echoes his mentor Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock." The album moves through shades of reggae, hip-hop and straight up rock 'n' roll. It features guest appearances by everyone from Marley himself to underground hip-hop icon Mos Def and rock god Kirk Hammett of Metallica.

Broader in scope than "Dusty Foot Philosopher," the album includes love songs, party tracks and an ode to rock 'n' roll. But it still contains unforgiving commentary on the situation in K'Naan's native country, which he describes as "a humanitarian crisis."

"It's one of the most dangerous places in the world," he says dryly.

On "Somalia" he tackles child soldiers, hunger and the country's infamous piracy. "ABCs" is a hard look at growing up in a war zone and the song "Fatima" is a heartbreaking tribute, detailing the loss of a friend to gun-toting thugs.

"Everything in that song is true," K'Naan says. "I've just been able to write it recently. That's not a story that was easy for me to write. Fatima was a childhood friend of mine who got killed shortly after we left."

"A brilliant and beautiful young lady," he continues, his voice soft, "but war takes the best of them."

"Troubadour" also contains the triumphant track "Wavin' Flag," but on the album version the emotionally grueling personal story that brought a good portion of the Antone's audience to tears is missing.

"I still do it live," K'Naan says. "But I wanted a story that seems like it's emerging from that story. It's finding that moment of light. It's reaching for something that is far higher than tragedy, which is hope. That's what I wanted to have in that song, when you hear it for you to not be weighed down by such a tough story, but to feel elated by it."

That seems to be the general theme of the new album, balancing tragedy with hope. Moving through the pain. Striving to reach the next level.

"Yeah, that's just my life though," K'Naan says. "I just kind of write myself into song."