Singer, rapper, poet - the artist known as K'naan
Singer, rapper, poet - the artist known as K'naan (born Kaynaan Warsame in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1978) presented himself as all that Monday at the World Cafe Live. Impressively so. His Somali sidekick Rayzak in tow, and backed by a touring band of four superb Philadelphia-based musicians, K'naan in performance answered some questions many may have been asking.
Singer, rapper, poet - the artist known as K'naan (born Kaynaan Warsame in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1978) presented himself as all that Monday at the World Cafe Live. Impressively so. His Somali sidekick Rayzak in tow, and backed by a touring band of four superb Philadelphia-based musicians, K'naan in performance answered some questions many may have been asking.
Most of the 75-minute set was material from his considerably hyped, week-old second album Troubadour, which has earned lukewarm-to-rave reviews. Is the Toronto-based MC-plus hip-hop's "next big thing"? An "artist to watch" for 2009? A talent showcased too commercially via high-profile collaborations? Is his new album (conceived/recorded in part at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studios - obligatorily mentioned) fine, but just not as ace as his rootsier debut, 2006 Juno Award winner The Dusty Foot Philosopher?
Beginning with his well-composed lines, Monday's gig put the evidence on display: The guy is way good; better to spend time appreciating him than overthinking his music. Before some tunes, K'naan recited lyrics as sung poetry, a hugely effective technique, as in the anthemic closer "Wavin' Flag," building with Matt Cappy's trumpet scales and guitarist Jake Morelli's power chords. (Several of the backing band's members have deep creds, playing with the Roots and with Jill Scott, who was in attendance.) Music director Omar Edwards (on keys and sampling) kept injecting East African touches all night, many songs spiced with Ethiopian jazz bits.
K'naan's flow can have a Q-Tip-like cadence, his high, light voice punching in at the end of lines for maximum impact. On "T.I.A." (for "This Is Africa"), it stressed his disparagement of hip-hop's tiresome gangsta shtick. After all, K'naan has seen some real carnage: His family fled the strife-torn Somalian capital in 1991, eventually settling in Canada. Thus the words: "I take rappers on a field trip any day . . . / I know where all the looters and the shooters stay / Welcome to the city we all call 'Doomsday.' " At other times, as in the encore set's "Dreamer," he pulled up to give a line an offhanded zing: "We from the only place worse than Kandahar - now that's kinda hard."
Not all was grim. "Bang Bang" sported an early-'80s Hall & Oates bounce, a better take on Ricky Martin's crossover pop. Neither act ever started a first verse with "Ah, there she goes again / The girl is Ethiopian."