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Good morning. And how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good-- the Mother Mother show on Saturday was an excellent excursion and should feed a couple of posts later this week. But right here I'm going to feed you some new music from K'Naan. I just checked the Hype Machine and they don't have this, so if you are a. a K'Naan fan and b. actually reading this brand-new blog, then I just made your day.
If you don't know anything about K'Naan, here's the quick facts that most media outlets will tell you (nothing new from me!):
-born and raised in Somalia
-learned English by listening to rap records his father sent to him from his job as a New York taxi driver
-as civil war broke out in 1991, his family managed to get the last commercial flight (ever, so far) out of Somalia and to New York
-moved to Toronto, started rapping
-once performed for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
-had a brief, now finished, feud with k-Os
-while touring for his first album, the Dusty Foot Philosopher, made a fan of Damian Marley, who helped him record his new album in the legendary Tuff Gong studios in Kingston, Jamaica (legendary because that's where Damian's father, Bob, recorded)
-the new album has guitar work by some guy named Kirk Hammett, plus appearances from Marley, Mos Def, and Chubb Rock
He appeared on the CBC program Q last Wednesday, talking about his new album, his growing fame, and Somalia, and he also performed acoustic versions of three new songs, which I've put below. If you want to hear the Jion Ghomeshi interview, then you can get the podcast here. Compared to the 80's rap beats and Metallica guitar solos you can hear on his website (click here, as you really should listen to it, too) this stuff is pretty different-- barely a rap to be found, and all acoustic guitar riffs and palm-of-the-hand production. It will be interesting to see how it all fits together on one album. Here's the Q stuff.
Fire in Freetown zshare
Take a Minute zshare
Waving Flag zshare
Aside from recent appearances on Q and CNN, K'naan is also getting a good push in the media as the first-ever X3 Artist of the Month, a partnership between CBC Radio 3, Exclaim! Magazine, and aux.tv to promote one new deserving Canadian artist every month. Here's the playlist of stuff from K'naan's first album they're using to promote it. Definitely check out "Water" and "I Was Stabbed By Satan," if nothing else. I'm going to post some collaborations and rarities I have from him later this week, but if anyone has the k-Os diss track, please pass it along. I believe it's something about an avocado.
X3 Artist of the Month Playlist
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