Artist Spotlight: K’naan

If you haven’t noticed around the site, I’m huge on hometown pride. Even by way of Somalia, K’naan shares this same love of Toronto that many people within the city feel. Getting away from the stigma many Canadian artist have, K’naan has not only achieved success world wide as an emcee, but he is probably more known south of the boarder (specifically New York) for his wild live shows and his up front political attitude and socially aware lyrics. Hot off of one of the best albums of 2009 thus far, Troubadour [read review], and being announced in to the Rock The Bells lineup, K’naan was able to answer a few questions regarding the aforementioned T Dot, his recent album, his live show, labeling, and his diverse musical influences. He also talks about his success and how he achieved it without changing himself, his lyrics, or his style, as well as the craft of Troubadour and the process of making it.

K, thanks so much for doing this. Interviewing hometown flavour is always great and I know you hold Toronto very close to you. How have you been and what’s been up? Congrats on the Rock The Bells tour, that’s sure to be insane!

K’naan: Excited to be a part of it, we are also going to be touring on the off days with Nas and Damian Marley. They just finished an album together and I’m on a couple of tracks.

Speaking of touring, you recently did a live show here in Toronto and shut it down. Your reputation of one of hip hop’s best live performers is growing rapidly. How do you think you’ll manage to keep it fresh consistently? How essential is the live band and the live instrumentation to your music?

K’naan: Music is energy, live music is live energy! We want the people who come out to have an experience as good as the one we are having when we are up there making music. It’s a musical exchange, give, take, and give again!

It’s clear to see your musical energy and how your background has transfused to your abilities as an emcee. How important is your background and your heritage to the music you make? Toronto has a large Somalian population, how essential is/has the city been to you whether musically, emotionally, personally, etc.?

K’naan: Well where I am from has formed me; it lives in me every day no matter where I go. That starts in Somalia and brought us to North America, eventually T-Dot. T-Dot is where I started to find my voice, it’s where I ran the streets and made decisions to pursue music as opposed to other things. I miss Toronto when I’m on the road, and it’s nice to come back here always.

Troubadour is doing immensely well and is an early candidate for album of the year. Was there any strategy to crafting this album that you didn’t perhaps take on Dusty Foot? Knowing that this would probably have a great selling point and a larger fan base, surely additions like Adam Levine, Kirk Hammett, and Damian Marley reach out to a much wider crowd and serve a purpose both to make great music and strive for a great selling point. Were the selling numbers that big of a deal to you this time around?

K’naan: We never make music with the thought of how much can we sell at the top of our minds. Music comes, if it’s popular and the melody spreads and becomes “pop” then that’s amazing. I knew that with the record company behind me we would have a bigger platform and I wanted to make something that would compete on the highest level, but we have always felt that we could create and present something that can live and thrive in that world without changing what we do. If it is commercially acceptable fine and if not that’s fine as well.

Many new listeners were brought in when the aforementioned Metallica guitarist was featured on “If Rap Gets Jealous.” Why did you decide to re-do and re-work it? Why that specific song?

K’naan: This was an idea from a rock producer named Dion Gilmore who has produced huge hits for Linkin Park and others. He wanted to go at the track again, so we did and when Kirk got down, it went to the next level.

What do Hammett, and all the other features on the album add to Troubadour? Do you think you could’ve gone the route of Dusty Foot and done the whole thing relatively solo or do you think, for example, that the addition of Mos Def and 2na on “America” was a necessary one?

K’naan: I don’t really know how to answer that; we collaborated because these are friends and along the way we had a chance to create together. If I didn’t think it added to the album you probably would not be hearing it.

How does it feel to bring a song like “ABC’s” out as a single? A song with such a strong message that can be so high energy, a club banger, and a thought provoking joint; this is the ultimate combination. Don’t you think this should be the route of more hip hop artists; creating an introspective club banger?

K’naan: Man, I can’t speak for other artists they can do their thing I’ll do mine.

What can’t be denied about the album is the variety of flavours it explores. For most albums, this would be running on thin ice because there’s a flurry of so much going on, but on Troubadour, it’s most welcome and appropriate. Do you avoid fitting a specific “label?” Are you first and foremost a hip hop artist or do you think that the label of a hip hop artist only limits what one might be capable to do?

K’naan: Good music, based in Hip Hop is what I strive to create. If I wanna sing I’ll sing, let the others make the genres and labels we just wanna create.

The knock on the album, however, is that it does “bounce around” too much. Do you agree with this? What other criticisms from this album are you going to take to your next project?

K’naan: If it was unsettling to me I would not have offered it to the people. Criticism is really just creative inspiration. I hear things, can’t say how much I listen to it unless it’s coming from a respected source.

With that said, K, you don’t do much wrong on Troubadour, and the production is the quiet success of the album. Explain your hand on the production and the very talented team you work with, Track and Field.

K’naan: Yeah we had a chance to work wit great producers from T&F to Phil and Bruno, Preservation, Don Gilmore, Krucial Keys and more.

Going back with Canadian content, what rappers out of Canada do you think are really setting the bar high in terms of hip hop out of this country? KevinNottingham.com favourite Shad, Eternia, and Classified are all hitting spots with their talent. Even a guy like Drake, who’s getting an immense amount of success in the US, without even dropping an album yet. Canada is stepping its game up ain’t it?

K’naan: Canada has always had a great history of dope MC’s and very good to see the world taking notice.

You are a talented dude, but what is one talent you hold as an emcee that sets you apart?

K’naan: Not a fair question, but I do like wordplay and melody. But this is a better question for fans rather than me.

Granted, on “I Come Prepared” you state: “My job is to write just what I see/ So a visual stenographer is what I be.” Do you honestly feel that it IS your job to write what you see? Do you think that by referring to an unseen reality a good-listener will be distanced from the artist’s music, but also, draw in an uneducated listener? Without naming names, is it fair to say that the false/glamorized realities are the more popular choices to make as an artist?

K’naan: I think it’s an easier choice, and if you have not really experienced circumstance without choice you may find a way to glamorize something that has no glamour to it.

With that deep answer, we’ll end it here. K, we all realize how busy you are, but thank you so much for your time. It is much appreciate and we can’t wait to check you out on RTB’s. What else do you have coming up?

K’naan: More music, more tours…

• myspace.com/knaanmusic

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