K’Naan
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, he spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to hip-hop records by artists like Nas & Rakim, sent to him by his father, who was working as a Taxi driver in New York City (having left Somalia earlier). When K’Naan 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 performed in Geneva at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2001, 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.
