AFRICAN RAPPER OF THE MONTH

Birth name: Keinan Abdi Warsame

Birth date: 1 February 1978 (age 32)
Birth place: Mogadishu, Somalia


• K’naans’ birth name Keinan, means "traveler" in the Somali language.
• K’naan spent his early years in Mogadishu, and was living there during the Somali Civil War.
• He grew up listening to hip hop music that his father would send to him from America. When he was 13, together with his mother and three siblings, K’naan left Somalia for New York City, where he stayed briefly before moving to Toronto, Canada.
• K’naan began learning how to speak English partly through listening to rappers like Nas and Rakim, despite the fact he couldn’t speak English, he taught himself hip hop slang and diction through reciting rap lyrics.
• While growing up in Toronto he spent time in jail and lost many friends to murder, deportation, suicide and prison.
• In 1999 he performed a spoken piece at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, criticizing the UN for its failed aid missions to Somalia. The performance opened many doors for him and led him to working more UN projects.
• In 2005 he married Deqa, a pharmacy technician, to whom he has two children with.
• K’naan rose to mainstream fame in America by participating in the 2008 BET Awards Cypher; this was his first appearance on American television.
• His sound is said to be a fuse of Bob Marley and conscious American hip hop, with an element of protest poetry. His voice and style have been compared to Eminem, but his subject matter is very different
• In a December 2008 interview, K’naan stated that he had never smoked weed or drank alcohol, despite touring with the Marleys.
• In 2009 his song “Wavin Flag” was chosen as Coca Cola’s anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the song received major airplay and video rotatation.
• K’naan has had a phenomenal career, he has worked with many great names in music like Mary J. Blige, Will.I.AM, Nas, Damien Marley, Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and Wale, which he collaborated on "Um'Ricka" from Wale’s mixtape “Back to the Feature” and on the song "TV in the Radio" from Wale's debut album “Attention Deficit”.

Discography

• The Dusty Foot Philosopher (2006) his debut album, received great reviews and was produced by Canadian producer Jarvis Church. The following year in 2006, the album won the Juno Award for "Rap Recording Of The Year", and was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize. It also won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the newcomer category for 2007. The album was later re-released and re-packaged as a "Deluxe Edition" featuring new mixes and a bonus DVD.
• Troubadour (February, 2009), the album was his first album with his new record label A&M/Octone Records. Songs from that album have been featured on several video games like Madden NFL 09 and FIFA 06
Awards
• In 2006 he won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year for “The Dusty Foot Philosopher”
• In 2010 he won two of his three nominations at the Juno Awards, for Songwriter of the year and Artist of the year