mp3: k’naan ‘soobax’
hip hop poet k’naan has just landed in australia, promoting his album ‘the dusty foot philosopher’. the title refers in part to k’naan‘s upbringing in somalia, for the ‘philosophy’ look no further than the many tracts found on his web site.
reared on nas and rakim, ‘the dusty foot philosopher’ feels at times very much like a typical commercial american hip hop album, however shot throughout the set, k’naan additonally reveals a genuine sense of his origins, dropping african sounds, instrumentation and verses – a fusion that sheds new light on hip hop’s natural roots.
now settled in canada, k’naan came under fire last year from his adopted country’s prince of hip hop, k-os, who allegedly questioned k’naan‘s credentials in his song ‘b-boy stance’. the fact that k’naan came from the ‘river of blood’ (regarded as one of the most dangerous hoods in africa); that when fleeing gunmen at the age of eleven, his two best friends were shot dead; that his brother blew up a court building and was due to be executed by firing squad (prior to them all managing to escape on the last commercial flight to leave mogadishu) – those tales would seem to give k’naan the benefit of the doubt when it comes to authenticity. a fact that he reminds us of in the track ‘what’s hardcore?’ – “if i rhymed about home and got descriptive, iǃÙd make 50 cent look like limp bizkit”.
as a side note – on his site, k’naan goes out of his way to marry the scientific beliefs of philosophy with his religious ideals, clearly stating that the two are not incompatible. he says: “philosophers offer ideas while revelations offer god’s direct guidance. so in that sense, there are no contradictions between religion and philosophy”. glad that’s cleared up. (in addition to his regular site, k’naan’s also publishes his own blog.)