WOMAD

K'Naan

From Canada, Somalia

Like the other high-profile East African rapper Emmanuel Jal appearing this weekend, Somali native K’naan Warsame grew up no stranger to guns. Hailing from the prophetically named River Of Blood area of Mogadishu, it was when the warfare came a little too close to the family home for comfort that the Warsame clan (including 13-year-old K’naan) decided to escape, fortuitously grabbing seats on what would be the last commercial flight out of the country. They pitched up in Canada – Toronto to be exact – where young K’naan, thrilled by the lyrics of the rapper Rakim, took up the family business of wordsmithery. With his grandfather being one of the greatest poets Somalia has ever produced, K’naan inherited this way with words and set out to be one of the most poetic and thoughtful rappers yet seen. This dedication to his craft bore fruit with the hugely acclaimed album The Dusty Foot Philosopher, a record that, in a few short months, has become one of the most inventive hip-hop records in years, very much the product of that tough upbringing. Like the man raps, “If I rhymed about home and got descriptive/I’d make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit”.In a few words… Arguably Africa’s most poetic rapper