K'Naan

他離開索馬里的年齡為13歲，他的姑姑， Magool ，是索馬里最有名的歌手。 K'naan的祖父，哈吉穆罕默德，是一個詩人。 K'naan也是一個穆斯林。 后來隨著內戰(zhàn)的繼續(xù)和索馬里的局勢繼續(xù)惡化， K'naan的母親，瑪麗安穆罕默德，請求美國大使館的出境簽證。他們一家的簽證獲得批準，他們登上了過去商業(yè)航班離開索馬里，移民加拿大了。 他的聲音和風格已經比較阿姆，但他的題材有很大的不同！K'naan 的音樂是談論索馬里的局勢，因為索馬里是他的祖國，他在歌曲中呼吁停止暴力和流血,特別試圖避免一般說唱陳詞濫調的姿態(tài)。 k'naan的《Wavin Flag》（中文：《飄揚的旗幟》）的歌曲經過了多輪的評審于2010年南非世界杯抽簽前夕最終被選為了南非世界杯的官方主題曲。
by Marisa Brown
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, just as the civil unrest that rocked the country was beginning, rapper K'Naan spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to the hip-hop records that his father, who had left Somalia earlier, sent to him from America. When K'Naan (whose name means "traveler" in Somali) was 13, he, his mother, and his two siblings were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in Harlem, where they stayed briefly before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where there was a large Somali community. As soon as K'Naan's English started improving he began rapping, and in tenth grade he dropped out of school and traveled around North America for two years, performing occasionally. Through his friendship with Sol Guy, part of promotion team Direct Current Media, K'Naan was able to perform at the United Nations' 50th anniversary concert in 1999, held in Geneva, where he used his platform to publicly criticize the United Nations' handling of the Somali crisis in the 1990s. One of the audience members, Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, was so impressed by the young MC's performance and courage that he invited him to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges, a project through which K'Naan was able to tour the world. In 2002 K'Naan met Jarvis Church, part of the Track and Field Productions team that helped to propel Nelly Furtado to fame, a connection that eventually led to a record. The Dusty Foot Philosopher came out in Canada in 2005, and was followed with tour spots with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, as well as a performance at Live 8.