Song 37: Somalia, K'naan

Somali-born Canadian rapper K'naan's albums The Dusty Foot Philosopher and Troubador are equally fantastic. It was a very difficult task to decide which one song to include on this Top 100 Political Music Countdown.

I love the brave and fierce Smile:

(Smile) When you're strugglin'

(Smile) When you're in jail

(Smile) When you're dead broke

(Smile) And the rent's due

(Smile) You ain't got friends now

(Smile) And no one knows you

NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU DOWN SMILE WHILE YOU'RE BLEEDING

From his challenge to the warlords of Africa in Soobax to his heart-breaking Fatima, K'Naan is the best political artist to come out so far this century. He's not the next Bob Dylan, he's the first K'naan.

From Somalia:

We used to take barb wire

Mold them around discarded bike tires.

Roll em down the hill in foot blazin’.

Now that was our version of mountain bike racing

Here's a good article from The Coast after The Dusty Foot Philosopher was released.

And an article on K'naan's work to try to get the Canadian government to pass an NDP bill that would make it easier for Canada to export life-saving drugs to developing countries.

Song 50: Hard Rain, Bob Dylan, K'naan and J. Period

In 2009 J. Period and K'Naan made a mixed-tape and did what hip-hop does so very well - sample great music and new material to make a modern powerful composition. They called the mixed-tape The Messengers after three artists that changed music and act as a source of inspiration for K'Naan: Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and Bob Dylan.

From a HipHop DX interview with the artists:

J. Period: If people hear good music they can instantly put that next to bad music and they know which is which. For me, the more people push the envelope in this way, the more Hip Hop goes back to where it began. It was always about taking the breaks and finding the best bits and pieces everywhere. It didn’t matter where it was from. You just put them together in a way that is fresh and new. In essence that is what I try to do with mixtapes. That’s what we’re doing here but on steroids because we have completely different things that are powerful on their own. 

K’Naan: Both Black Thought and Wyclef [Jean] were in the room tonight. Both of them had the same thing to say to me about the project and how they’re really inspired and moved. They wanted to do something. They wanted to go and create. That’s ultimately the job of art. It’s to make us feel like we need to do something.