It was the fall of 2000, in my dorm room and as I was setting up my desktop I fell in Love with Hip Hop: Outkast’s “spottieottiedopaliscious” was the first song I downloaded. My brother had some of the best tapes and records growing up. Eventually, music became some sort of therapy for me. When I hit a wall or some hard times, I end up listening to all kinds of music.
In 2004, I remember watching this video on MTV by this new and upcoming rapper from Somalia called ‘Soobax‘. I was fascinated how he was able to get away with a hook that is entirely sung in Somali, and get featured on MTV. Even though I didn’t understand it, I was in love with the beat and his rap verses.
His name is K’naan and little did I know, his journey and story is one to be told. And that’s exactly what he is, a storyller. His latest album is aptly titled Troubadour, which according to wiki has Latin roots and loosely translates to “invent” or compose”. Also, its lesser known etymology in Arabic points to its various meanings of ‘finding’, ‘love’, and ‘music’. The latter would be a better representation of the album. Troubadour is filled with 14 solid tracks. With his opening track, “T.I.A (This Is Africa)” which K’naan clearly demonstrates is street cred to rappers and takes listeners on a trip through the streets of Africa and the sample of Bob Marley’s “Simmer Down” is quickly recognizable.
Forward to another track ‘Somalia’ where he introduces the listener to the current troubles of the country and its people by putting a face to the struggle. My personal favorite is “Dreamer”, which is pretty much self explanatory on following and chasing your dreams even if it’s hard. ‘Bang Bang’ feat Adam Levine opens up with a classic line by Pharcyde “and there she goes again, the dope is ethiopian…”, which clearly is a nod to his fellow East Africans. Other honorable mentions are “ABC’s” and “Africa” in which he samples a few Ethiopian tracks on the latter.
I am not going to give you a detailed account of each track, but there is a track for everyone, representing every emotion and that will somehow speak to you in a different way. I feel as though he is the new face of hip hop. His art of storyteller will bring something new and fresh we can all look forward to in music.
Recently, I was lucky enough to attend 2 of his concert, in DC and Philly. The one in DC was held at the Kennedy Center and the line was literally wrapping around the building, given that it was a free show. This is not my first time seeing him perform, however, the crowd in attendance was one of the most diverse I had ever seen. You could definitely feel the love, the unity and the positive energy in the crowd. Not only is he a great performer, but an engaging one.
It doesn’t matter if there were 20 people or 1,000 people in the room, you felt like you part of his show. He did a poetry/spoken word piece about ‘Love’ which literally blew the crowd away. I don’t want to give too much away of his live show, but it is a must see. I caught up with Dawit at the end of the show and we wanted to give his crew and management Bernos Shirts.
So we had to wait one hour as he was gracious enough to sign each and every single CD, poster or what have you for his fans. It was worth the wait. This humble, soft spoken man allowed us 3 minutes out of his busy schedule to accept tshirts on behalf of himself and his crew. K’naan is now officially a Bernos fan, and especially a fan of the ‘Made in Africa’ shirt. Rayzak, his lead singer, wore the ‘Alien’ Shirt, which is my personal favorite, to the Philly show.
So a big THANK YOU goes out to K’naan, his band and his management team, who are all equally humble and incredibly generous for accepting our shirts.
Published by March 9th, 2009 in African, Bernos, Current Issues, Music and Personal.Send this post to a friend
nice entry Beshu-ye…i’m a fan of K’naan too and i’m glad he made it big
uffaaa arif post to read.
Thanks for the post Beshou, I am a fan and a supporter of K’naan and indeed he is a sory teller and a poet, long may that continue….
awesome write-up beshou! just enough hints to get any curious cats to wanna check out this savory music!
i loved the concert too! and just amazing album this troubador one…
beshou,
dope story & review. it was indeed a phenomenal performance!
but what’s the story behind the photography? either bernos is holding out on better promo shots with the shirts, or K’naan’s press folks were acting snarky about your equipment. which one is it?
many thanks for the love everyone!
toothpick, we were having ‘technical difficulties’(this coming from the photographer)lol. my camera’s focus was acting up in dc and in philly when i tried to get backstage shots of the crew. *shrugs*
You so lucky! Everytime you go to a concert, you manage to take a picture with the artist(s). How do you do it?
Great post Beshou…As for the Camera focus issue, I forgive you now!
Thanks Beshou for a great review. K’naan is definitely slept on.
Thanks tpeace for telling me about the “Troubadour” album.
Beshou, though you mentioned it in your post,there is one thing that needs to be highlighted. Out of the 14 tracks the album contains, six of them carry Ethiopian samples!!! Huge thanks to K’nnan for using these samples as they will be heard by countless of hip hop fans which I hope can lead an even more interest of the Golden Era of Ethiopian music.
15 Minutes contains a sample of “Yene Felagote” by Tilahun Gessesse
ABC’s contains a sample of “Kasalefkut Hulu” by Mulatu Astatqe
America contains the sample “Lanchi Biye” by Tilahun Gessesse
Dreamer contains the sample “Tey Gedyeleshim” by Alemayehu Eshete
I come prepared contains the sample “Shellela” by Getachew Mekurya
Somalia contains the sample “Yene Mastawesha” by Tilahun Gessesse
Gash Ethio Jazz,
I stand corrected! I didn’t know he sampled that many ethio tracks. It’s beautiful to hear our greats are getting some sort of exposure in hip hop and possibly in other genres
Beshou — Great piece of journalism with passion. Your enthusiasm prompts me to go get the CD ASAP and also to regret that I missed the (free) DC show.
EthioJazz (Sayem) — Thanks for your enlightening dissertation. As a fellow fan of the Ethiopiques series and all the classical musicians you cited, it will be fun to listen to each track to see if I can find what you just revealed.
matt andrea — beshou ain’t promoting with good journalism for promoting sakes too i’ll tell ya — the album, almost every single track, is worth you going out and getting a CD if only to support good music that tells the stories of our region of the world with truth!
ejye i kneewww you would be onto something
thanks so much for the full listing of the songs. I find it refreshing that some of the amharic song titles match up with the knaan song too!!! he musta had some translations done minamin…
shellela/warrior chants – i come prepared
yene felagote (my wish/desire) – 15mins
yene mastawesha (my memorabilia) – Somalia
I first heard of K’naan’s – ABCs on Madden 09 (It’s on the soundtrack). Good music indeed. Thanks a lot for the post!
K’Naan is one humble and talented brother…. His show in Atlanta was amazing and all the 10 people I dragged with me were an instant Fan.
Every time I listen to his music, I feel like I have found an artist that actually speaks to me and that is not very common with Hip Hop!!
I have to admit, I didn’t know who he was till about a month ago. Now everywhere I turn, i hear about him. I had to buy his new album and I Love it! I have been listening to it all day. Thanks Beshou!
Nice peace Beshou, the DC concert was def a must see. i’m glad K’naan finally got the recognition he deserves… my personal favorite “i come prepared” is a definate banger.
beshouye..what r u waiting for cuz? if he’s that good and with a habesha following, then ..bring him to Addis enji!
Haroun, I’m just persistent. lol. I wish there was more to it
Dawit : haha..yea, it was frustrating. Next time, we’ll get it right.
Matt : thanks alot, I am humbled by the comments.
Fabay: im soooooooooooo happy that you all the ppl u dragged were instant fans. his music is contagious
mitmita : welcome to the club
shifta : i appreciate the luv nefsu. ‘i come prepared’ IS a hot track. anything that damian touches is gold. look fwd to some hot shows during the summer
ammanu : CUZZO!! hahaha…nuff said!
much love to everyone, and it’s great to see that his music is having such a great impact on ppl!!
Check this from the album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxmEd9lcn0k&feature=related
very tight
Nol,
I know I am being a party pooper here but, all the three voices, the guitar, the tune and everything sounds cheesy to me… more like a local church youth band….besides the lyrics sounds straight up whining…..may be acoustics is not his style I dunno….or may be he sounds better rapping than singing…
nice piece Beshou. the fuzzy pictures call for spare camera #1 and #2 in your purse for next time…
Beshou –
I don’t usually leave comments on your site, but after reading your post, reading about K’Naan, checking his music, buying his album instantly and having it on heavy rotation for the past few hours, I’m back to say: Thank you.
T
Knaan is the shit! The new global face of rap if his music can be classified as such.but not only is he from the world’s most ‘risky zono’ he also is a threat to rappers with claim to that title.The beef knaan had with K OS I think will be nothing compared to what’s coming to him from American rappers. His voice need some more work for the ‘chant’. I am amazed at the difference and maturity of his voice between the first and this album, he no longer sounds like eminem. Here we go somalia and the bernos promo is off the hook…
Tekknique,
you are welcome. hopefully i have inspired others to do the same too. oh, please come back and comment more often
Anonx,
but thanks for love 
its a shame KOS didn’t flourish as I expected, he’s a great MC
I actually neva heard of him or anything by him until the Bet Awards 09. In between the intro’s during the award show they always do a “cypher” freestyle to kinda of take it hiphop to the roots. In that cypher there were Jada Kiss, Fabulous, Juelz Santana, J hood and etc..they were free styling all nice and then it was the turn of this one dude from somalia I neva heard, he just started ripping it. I did not expect it at all. I have neva heard of him but he was killing it. He is real sick. He held his own with all them top rappers, I might even say he had one of the best freestyles (and that is no small thing cuz Jada Kiss and Fabulous’ freestyle skill is not one of the best). He should be blowin up soon..He is a real smooth deep conscious artist.
K’nnan Beats are stolen from Ethiopian Singers some one needs to do something about this. K’nnan did not acknowledge or gave credit to the Ethiopian singers. People who listened to K’nnan are calling him a talented musician and genius and even dare to compare him to Bob Marley and brought fresh air and renewed life to hip ho are you kidding me But he is not because he completely stole beats and melodies form two legendary Ethiopian singers. I grew up listening to these songs I am 34 years old and most of the beats that were stolen were produced before I was born. I have attached two links to two web site. The first one it is a website that compares the new and the old as they were recorded and the second one is a link to amazon.com in there you will find Ethiopiques a French company who has been recording Ethiopian music for a long time. They have all the recording dates for all the Ethiopian music. He should not get a pass the world need to call him on it. copy and past the links below and you shall hear how he tried to decieve you all
1 http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php...
2 http://www.amazon.com/Ethiopiques-Vol-15-Jump...
Mekonnen,
I think that’s a bit presumptuous of you to say that. I’ve been to a few of his shows where he ,verbally, gives credit to ethiopian artists inspiring a couple of tracks. In addition, most of the time artists give credit in their CD’s when they use other individuals beats.
And I just got word from a credible source that K’naan and his management did go through the proper channels to acquire the right to use those beats/songs. So again, I would suggest that you check your facts before making such accusations.
who is you credible source. May I get contact info please?
giving a verbal credit to the artists for inspiring him is one thing. giving credit to the artists for the beat and melody is another 4 or 5 of his songs have identical beat by beat and melody by melody. As I said before I am 34 years old and I grew up listening to them when I was a kid in ethiopia.
Giving credits for being inspired by the Ethiopian Artists and Using the beats beat by beat is different.
By the way the artists we are talkling about are Tilahun Gessess and Alemayhu Eshete
I am still waitting for the credible source info.
Mekonnen,
Check your email!
Mekonnen,
First of all, K’naan’s signed onto a major record label, so ‘stealing’ music is not an option to him, as he would be having legal issues a while back as soon as he released his CD (and I don’t think he would even be allowed to release any songs without making the appropriate payments to the original artists/publishers). Maybe you should buy his CD, and check the copyright section.
Also, I think you should take a look at this video on youtube, where he says from his mouth that he sampled Mulatu Astatqe and Tilahun Gessesse and pays his respects.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL2J6OGFk3o
Call it friday bluez: I have defended Bernos fans of Knaan from accusations coming from–lets say Somalians– that you like him now because he is famous or becoming one, otherwise he is just a Somalian ‘stealing’ Ethiopian sounds.
I think Ethiopian Jazz is receiving a deserved publicity. The ‘stealing’ part is a worry for those who own the rights and stand to reap financial rewards…and they are there.
I finally saw K’naan perform and he was phenomenal! He absolutely gave credits to the Ethiopian artists that he sampled his music from. Rezak? was amazing too. There’s nothing to add. He’s the IT now.
it’s embarassing how far people are taking all these accusations without having any ground!
Here’s what I found as part of the credits and descriptions under each song in the booklet that comes with the troubadour album (just copy/pasted from the pdf document):
ABC’s: Song contains sample from “Kasalefkut Hulu” (Mulatu Astatke). Used courtesy of Buda Musique
Dreamer: Song contains sample from “Tey Gedyeleshem“ (Alemayehu Eshete). Used courtesy of Buda Musique and CRC Editions.
I come prepared: Song contains sample from “Shellela” (Getatchew Mekurya). Used courtesy of Buda Musique and CRC Editions.
Somalia: Song contains sample from “Yene Mastawesha” (Tlahoun Gessesse). Used courtesy of Buda Musique.
America: Song contains sample from “Lantchi” (Tlahoun Gessesse). Used courtesy of Buda Musique.
15 minutes away: Song contains sample from “Yene Felagote” (Tlahoun Gessesse). Used courtesy of Buda Musique.
Mekonen, if u are really a fan of Ethiopian music then u should be exceedingly thankful of this K’naan fellow for saving those sounds from utter obscurity.
Anyways, I hope all you indignant defenders of the delusion called “copyright” should get it their minds that there is no such thing as original music/art, at least now a days. Everything is sampled, reused, re-purposed etc. Everything is inspired by something that came before. So the only thing that you accomplish by this self righteous campaign is spread animosity and waste energy unnecessarily.
“Mekonen, if u are really a fan of Ethiopian music then u should be exceedingly thankful of this K’naan fellow for saving those sounds from utter obscurity.”
that’s exactly what me and my folks felt!