Brightest Young Things

photos by Joel Didriksen

interview by Lauren Cooper

Back in the day we sent BYT-friend Lauren Cooper to meet up with Somali-born rapper K'Naan. It was a few days after his new album, Troubadour, dropped and he was playing a free show at the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage. Now our little K'Naan is all growed up and his song, Wavin' Flag, is the anthem of the World Cup!

It seems like just yesterday K'Naan was doing crappy spoken word shows on U Street.  And now he's the darling of all of Africa (not to mention the world). 

BYT (Lauren Cooper): How is your set perceived in the Somali Community?

K'Naan: I suppose there are those who believe that what I am doing is helpful and who are religious and who appreciate it.  But there are those who believe that music in itself, not necessarily the music that I make, but music in itself is Islamically, how do I say this, unsound.  And because of all the other elements that it does invite.  Which is partly true there are a lot of elements that it does invite.  There is always a group of people who are in support of what you do and always a group that are not, but I would say that the majority of the Somali community has shown sincere appreciation.

BYT: You come from a very artistic family.  Your grandfather was a poet and your aunt is a singer.  Did you know from a young age that this was the path that you wanted to follow?

K'Naan: (Chuckles)  No.  (I wanted to be) an optometrist.  Because there was a doctor I met when I was very young.  He was going to help my grandmother.  Her eyes were failing.  So, I happened to go with her on this trip to see the doctor and he was wearing this white coat and he was bald, I actually wanted to be bald as well, that's because of him.  I thought if you were going to be an eye doctor you had to be bald!

BYT: Well, you can always shave your head and become an eye doctor, right?  That can be your Plan B!

K'Naan: What, if this thing, if the music fails?  Yes, an optometrist (laughs).  But that's really what I wanted to be (as a child).

BYT: In your song, Bang Bang off your new album, Troubadour, you have a quote from a Pharcyde song, Passin' Me By.  Are you a big Pharcyde fan?

K'Naan: Come on.  Yes, of course.  Everyone is!  I love Pharcyde, they were a very creative force in hip hop, and music in general.  Creative in every angle of how they made their music.  Musically, lyrically, but also visually, and that's rare now in hip hop.  Music in general.  But specifically very rare in hip hop now, seems impossible.  I love Pharcyde.  But also specifically the song, the idea of the song, the story I wanted to tell...

BYT: I saw you had a chance to work with Mos Def on this album, is he one of your influences, or do you get compared with him a lot since you are both, slightly, message-centric hip hop?

K'Naan: Well, he doesnt really influence me, we, maybe, I mean, we've been close friends for so long, I would probably say, he would probably say the same thing, we influence each other, you know when you are friends with someone a long time, you kind of begin to talk alike a little bit?  Things like that.  Not necessarily musically.  I really do have my own kind of vision and sound, and he does his own thing.

BYT: I noticed you wear hats all the time.  Do you have a thing for hats?

K'Naan: Hmm, I like hats.  I like hats, but it depends on the kind of show I want to play.  So I'll wear hats according to the kind of show I want to play.  It's very strange.  But if I do a hatless show, it's a different type of show.  And so I've been wanting to do hat shows for a while now.

BYT: So is a hat show more...?

K'Naan: It's completely undefinable, but it's completely different.  Because my music and my show is a consistent out pour of emotion and real scenarios of life and so on, a hat is a protective element for me.  The no-hat (show) is a real emotional show, more revealing.

BYT: I read somewhere that you blew up your elementary school with a grenade.  Is that true?

K'Naan: Yes.  I didn't like the school (laughs).  No I'm kidding, it was an accident.  We found the grenade buried near the back of the school, me and my friend and my cousin.  I found it and we kind of just threw it around at each other for a second.

BYT: (laughs)  Oh no!

K'Naan: When in Somalia, you play Somalian games (laughs).  I was eleven and didn't know what a grenade really was.  My cousin said I know that that's a grenade.  He came from the countryside and had seen war already.  So they pulled the pin, by accident.  Well it got pulled, we were fighting over it and it got pulled.  So we let it go and it blew up the school.

BYT: Well, thank god you tossed it, better the school than you.

K'Naan: Right, and there was noone in there, so...  But it was a massive rebuilding process.  Most of the people that were there were like, 'you guys survived'!

BYT: You're going to play South By Southwest (SXSW) in a few weeks.  Are you excited about that?  All the hipsters coming out to see you?  What's your demographic?

K'Naan: Weird, weird demographic.  It's just like...  It's anywhere.  You'll have a bunch of east Africans who will have come together in the corner, to see you, to see the show anywhere we play.  You have a bunch of young, hip hop, white and black cliques who come out to see the show.  You have 40 or 50-year old white people who come out who would otherwise never listen to hip hop who come out.  So it's so different.  And there's some hipster crowd.  There's a hippie crowd.  I don't know what to expect from SXSW.  I've never been there.  We cancelled SXSW I think three years in a row now.  So this is the time that I'm actually gonna play it.

Joel: It's a great party, man, it's a lot of fun.  A great opportunity to see bands that you wouldn't normally get to see since you're on the road a lot.

K'Naan: I might actually make it a point of going to see some bands.

Joel: It's cool because bands just play short sets, like twenty minute sets, you could probably see fifty bands.

K'Naan: I will probably never want to see fifty bands.  There isn't that many types of music that I like (laughs)

BYT: What kind of music DO you like?

K'Naan: All kinds.  If you look at my iTunes list it's all over the place.  Everything.  From Fado music from Portugal to Fela Kuti's sound to anything, Nina Simone's jazz to everything.

BYT: Cool.  So where do you live now, you've spent time in Minneapolis and Toronto are you just travelling now?

K'Naan: I'm just travelling now.  I have a place in L.A. for a while now.  But, I'm thinking that's not gonna be where I want to live.  I've stayed there for a year and it doesn't feel right.

BYT: You've lived in DC.  What's a DC thing that you love about DC?

K'Naan: I used to go out to really special kind of events.  Little things.  Special things.  On U Street there's an old spot that used to be called the Kaffa House.  They tore it down.  I used to walk there on Thursday nights and they would have poets come through.  So I used to go to that.  Before the spoken word scene got all corny.  '97, '98 maybe.  Do you remember State of the Union?  I used to come and do some rhymes down there.  Yeah.

Joel: Cope used to hang out down there.  Clarence Cope.  Citizen Cope?

K'Naan: Citizen Cope?  (Excited)  Really?  Citizen Cope!  I didn't know that.  I'm a big fan of Citizen Cope and I heard he was wanting to meet me, and Nelly Furtado is a friend of both of ours and we never got to meet.  She's always been trying to get us in touch but it's never happened.  I'm a huge fan of Citizen Cope.

Joel: Give me your email and I'll get you guys in touch.

Tour Manager Arrives and tells K'Naan it's time to wrap up, he's got a show to put on...

BYT: It was a pleasure meeting you.

K'Naan: Thank you, likewise.