I first got a sampling of K'Naan's music in 2005 when he came on the scene with "Soobax". He was still so raw, still so original, so underground - kinda like MIA before she became hot in the US. Unfortunately I was not really in the mindframe of taking in the social activism message he rapped about so his name came and went after the one "commercial" hit. (BTW, till this day, I am still very shallow about my music choices but consciously so - does it make it better??)
So when I saw that he had a new album out and iTunes was offering a single of his for free, I downloaded it and was HOOKED. The beat was hyped and his lyrical skills (or skillz for street credibility) is still top-notch. Strangely enough, people compare him to Bob Marley mixed with Eminem quite a bit but I would describe his sound as more Mos Def mixed with Black Eyed Peas. Maybe his sound today is alot more commercialized but still edgy but if you add Adam Levine to one of the first releases from your album, what does that say?
Anyway, all that aside, this album is quite amazing - every song is really engaging and I just downloaded the entire album from Amazon and am just nodding my head to the music as I am typing this post.
You can click on the link to go to amazon.com and listen to samples of his music on Troubadour. Let me know if you like it!
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