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K’naan — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Career

K'naan became a friend and associate of Canadian promoter Sol Guy, who helped him secure a speaking engagement before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999, where K'naan performed a spoken word piece criticizing the UN for its failed peacekeeping missions to Somalia. 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.

This project led to his work at other UN events, as well as the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Halifax Pop Explosion. It also helped him meet Canadian producer Brian West and Jarvis Church and his Track & Field team in 2002, who produced his debut album The Dusty Foot Philosopher, which was released in 2005 to critical acclaim. In 2006, it won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year, and was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize. It also won the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the newcomer category for 2007. The Dusty Foot Philosopher was re-released and repackaged as a "Deluxe Edition" featuring new mixes and a bonus DVD in the United States (and various international territories) by the emerging media company and record label iM (Interdependent Media, Inc.) in 2008.

K'naan toured and collaborated with artists like Nelly Furtado, Mos Def, will.i.am, The Roots, Dead Prez, and Pharoahe Monch on tours such as Live 8 and Breedlove Odyssey. He also collaborated with Damian Marley on the "Welcome to Jamrock" touring session.

K'naan released The Dusty Foot on the Road, a collection of recordings made during his world tour on Wrasse Records.

K'naan rose to mainstream popularity by participating in the 2008 BET Awards Cypher. This was his first appearance on American television. His second studio album, Troubadour, was released on 24 February 2009, on A&M/Octone Records, and distributed through Universal Music Group worldwide. The album's first single, "ABC's", was released in late 2008. K'naan's music has featured in several video games such as Madden NFL 09 (with his song "ABC's") and FIFA 06 (with his song "Soobax"). The song "If Rap Gets Jealous", a re-recording of a track of the same name – with different verses – from The Dusty Foot Philosopher, features Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett. K'naan was also the first featured artist on X3, a collaborative project between CBC Radio 3, Exclaim! magazine and aux.tv to promote new Canadian music. In July 2010, he performed a cover of U2's "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" for iHeartRadio. On 24 January 2012, K'naan released a 5-song EP under the title More Beautiful Than Silence including songs such as "Nothing to Lose", "Better", "Is Anybody Out There?". The songs also include collaborations with Nas and Nelly Furtado.

K'naan's 2012 album, Country, God or the Girl, was met with little of the critical acclaim and success that Troubadour received. Unlike Troubadour, which was produced almost entirely by production team Track and Field, Country, God or the Girl featured a wide range of different producers, many of whom work on more mainstream projects. After the release of the album, K'naan published an article in the New York Times explaining and apologizing for the change in his sound. "My lyrics should change, my label's executives said; radio programmers avoid subjects too far from fun and self-absorption," recounts K'naan. "So I began to say yes. Yes to trying out songs with A-list producers. Yes to moving production from Kingston to Los Angeles." In the end, K'naan states "I had not made my Marley or my Dylan, or even my K'naan; I had made an album in which a few genuine songs are all but drowned out by the loud siren of ambition. Fatima had become Mary, and Mohamed, Adam."

In 2012, K'naan published a children's book, When I Get Older: The Story Behind Wavin' Flag.

He is featured along with Howard Shore in the Cosmopolis (2012) soundtrack.

In February 2024, K'naan won his first Grammy Award for a song called "Refugee", which won in the category for Best Song for Social Change.

Mother Mother, his debut film as a director, premiered in the Discovery program at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Collaborations

In 2006, he collaborated with Dead Prez's M-1 on the song "'Till We Get There" from the album Confidential.

In 2008, K'naan collaborated with the Malian duo Amadou & Mariam on the song "Africa" from their album Welcome to Mali.

In 2009, he collaborated with British rock band Keane on two songs from their EP Night Train including the single "Stop for a Minute", and "Looking Back".

In 2009, he also collaborated with American rapper Wale on the song "Um'Ricka" from the mixtape Back to the Feature, and on the song "TV in the Radio" from Wale's debut album Attention Deficit.

In September 2009, K'naan teamed up with J.Period, an L.A.-born DJ/producer, and released The Messengers, a three volume remix project. Each volume pays tribute to one music icon: Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan. It was released and is hosted online for free at Jperiod.com/knaan Archived 21 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine.

K'naan also toured with Jason Mraz during the summer of 2009 for Mraz's Gratitude Cafe Tour. He also toured with Lenny Kravitz on the LLR tour in 2009.

In 2010, during the Vancouver Olympics, 50 other Canadian musicians and artists came together with K'naan under the collaboration name of Young Artists for Haiti at the Bryan Adams Vancouver studios to produce a charity version of his song "Wavin' Flag". The music video was released 1 March 2010. String students from Lord Byng Secondary and Magee Secondary joined together momentarily and formed an orchestra which accompanied the song. It was released for digital download on 12 March 2010.

In 2010, K'naan featured on the first unofficial single, "Mask on My Face", from Chin Injeti's album, D'tach.

In 2010, a remixed bilingual English/Spanish version of "Wavin' Flag" was made under the title "Wavin' Flag (Coca Cola Spanish Celebration Mix)" with Spanish pop artist David Bisbal after the song was chosen as the Coca-Cola anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, to be held in South Africa. K'naan sings the English lyrics and Bisbal the Spanish lyrics. He also featured Banky W. and M.I in the Nigerian version of the song "Wavin' Flag", Nancy Ajram for the Arabic version of the song, féfé for the French version, Skank for the Brazilian version, and will.i.am and David Guetta for the English version of the song. He also featured Ai (singer) in the Japanese version of the song under the title "Wavin' Flag (Coca Cola Japanese Celebration Mix)". He also featured Jacky Cheung and Jane Zhang in the Chinese version of the song, entitled "旗開得勝".

In 2010, he collaborated with Damian Marley and Nas on the album Distant Relatives, appearing on the songs "Tribes at War" and "Africa Must Wake Up". He also helped come up with the "sound" of certain songs such as “As We Enter”. The album was released on 18 May 2010.

In 2010, K'naan's song "Wavin' Flag" is featured in the documentary Bouncing Cats by the filmmaker Nabil Elderkin, starring Crazy Legs. The singer also appears in an interview.

In 2011, K'naan is featured as a guest singer on Simple Plan album Get Your Heart On! on a track called "Summer Paradise".

In 2011, he is featured with KRS-One on the soundtrack to the film Beat the World on a track called "Hip Hop Nation", produced by Frank Fitzpatrick.

In 2012, K'naan released a single titled "Nothing to Lose" featuring Nas.

In 2012, he collaborated with Howard Shore and Don DeLillo in the Cosmopolis soundtrack.

K'naan also released "Bang, Bang" featuring Adam Levine from Maroon 5 on his album Troubadour.

In 2017, K'naan performed in a music video titled "Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)" with Residente, Riz MC and Snow Tha Product. The song is part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's The Hamilton Mixtape.

On 19 September 2021, K'naan was featured on Sharma Boy's song "Waayo Waayo."

On 20 December 2021, K'naan was featured on Sharma Boy's song "Somalia Somali Baa Leh."

K’naan

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K’naan

🎬 Filmography

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K’naan across IJR

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Early life

Career

Political involvement

Style and influences

Notable live performances

2010 FIFA World Cup tour

No show at Simon Fraser University

Coke's 125th anniversary

"Decade of Difference" Clinton concert

Musical feud

Collaborations

Personal life

Sexual assault charge

Philanthropy

Awards and nominations

Discography

🎬 Filmography

K’naan across IJR