I'm Really Digging Somalian Rapper K'Naan Right Now!

K'Naan should be on your radar if he already isn't.For one thing,he's totally gorgeous.And I love that this guy has a flow that is reminiscent of Lil'Wayne,but he has a tremendous respect for women.Because he came from such strong African women,this Somalian-Canadian married father of two has the highest regard for females.Now,isn't that refreshing?!

His music is about the trials & tribulations of a Somalian.He even has verses that are entirely in the language of his homeland.The beats are catchy & unique.All I have to say is wow!If he doesn't blow the hell up,it would have to be because he didn't get enough publicity.Here's more on this deep, budding artist from TheStar.com:

"Never mind the CNN spot, Los Angeles Times nod, Esquire plug and all the other high-profile buzz around K'Naan's forthcoming sophomore disc. As far as the Toronto rapper is concerned, Troubadour is already a smash.

"It's how my mother feels – that's the trajectory of success, that is how I decide; and she's been moved by the album," says the 30-year-old performer of the 14 tracks comprising urgent, universal songs about love, hope and struggle in a mélange of traditional African rhythms, hip hop, rock, reggae and pop.

"And my second measure of success is how my own people feel about the music I make about them," says Somali-born Keinan Warsame, who settled here with his family in the early '90s after fleeing civil war at home

"If they feel like the music is about them and not for them, it's not successful to me; but if it's about and for them, as well as for everyone else, then I'm satisfied."

While "America" features entire verses in his native tongue, "Somalia" recounts Mogadishu's mean streets, and references to uniquely African immigrant experiences are sprinkled throughout the album,

K'Naan knows some members of his ethnic community won't be able to get past the hip-hop overtones in his work.

"The older people who understand my music, who understand English, they don't think I'm a rapper, they think I'm a poet." And for that, says the grandson of famed Somali poet Haji Mohamed says, "they really honour it."

But the elders generally "don't like hip hop; they don't think the kids should be listening to it. They see it as vulgar joke music that is demeaning and degrading to women, and that's not in our culture. A guy from Somalia calling a girl a ho is unheard of. We don't demean our women that way."

This brings to an interesting juncture our conversation over tea at a downtown Toronto hotel during K'naan's hectic days of promotion prior to the launch of his first North American headlining tour, which lands at the Mod Club on album release day, Feb. 24.

Earlier in our chat, in his unhurried, philosophical way, the MC defended his use of the N-word in his rhymes, which, with no equivalent term in Somali, doesn't seem like a natural undertaking.

"I grew up partly in Somalia's vicious streets and partly in North American streets," he said. "I never lived in the circles of the goody-goodies. I was a high-school dropout, hung out with thugs.

"I learned the endearment of `n----r.' It would be nice and all positive of us to say, `Well, let's not do it in music,' but we say it in our households. Until we agree to stop that ..."

I wonder now, albeit gratefully, why he cherry-picked this word, and not that other term, from the urban landscape. "I think it's different in the sense that there is no way to make `ho' nice," he replies with a laugh. "Even if Lil' Kim can sound good saying it, `ho' is still a problem.

"`N----r' is a problem in the sense that it was connected to social class and such, but it's not a personal ... degrading of a woman – that's intense to me, and I'm from powerful women." (END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.