| K'Naan Ready for Cdn. Live 8 gig |
According to Live 8's official lineup of musicians for Barrie, rapper, hip-hop artist and Somalia native K'Naan is supposed to be playing with Quebec act DobaCaracol.
"Who is that?" K'Naan asks with a laugh. "I don't know who that is. No, no, I don't think that's happening. I don't know that band, actually. I didn't want to play with people that I don't know. I'm sure they're good, but I'm playing with somebody else."
Organizers did not immediately explain the apparent discrepancy.
K'Naan, 27, grew up in Mogadishu, Somalia. At age 13 he, his mother and brother departed that war-ravaged country on one of the last commercial flights out.
They set up in the Harlem section of New York City, then later put down roots in Rexdale, which a Montreal publication -- in a story on K'Naan two weeks ago -- described as "an area of Toronto known for brutal policing."
K'Naan began rapping at about age 9 back in Somalia. He was influenced by artists such as Nas and Rakim.
When he signed up to play Live 8 he believed he would be the act with the shortest set in Barrie, although that might not be true now.
"There's a possibility I'll be playing with someone that I'm happy about playing with and am friends with," he says. "The way it's looking, the set is not going to be as short as I expected and it's going to be really nicely put together."
Although there tends to be some confusion in the days and hours leading up to such a big concert, K'Naan says playing with an act he was unfamiliar with would have been the only thing to prevent him from playing. But he was 100% behind the ideology of the event, and said the concert's intent has deep significance.
"If the idea of the concert is articulated in a manner that it is about a cause rather than about this display of big names, if the big names themselves actually keep in mind a perspective or idea of what we're trying to do or accomplish, then it could be incredibly effective," he says.
He says he has very little memory of Live Aid in 1985.
"I was quite young and in Mogadishu," he says.
There were criticisms 20 years ago that Live Aid didn't include enough artists of African descent. K'Naan says the Live 8 line-up itself isn't exactly as diverse as it could be.
"Nothing is as diverse as it could be, actually," he says. "So I think the lineup is just a reflection of the music industry here as well."
K'Naan has already had a busy week with the release of his latest album, The Dusty Foot Philospher. The title comes from losing a friend he had while growing up. "I was thinking about a friend of mine who was killed in the war back home in Somalia," he says. "I used to think of him as the Dusty Foot Philosopher.
"Our little crew of young guys were coming up during the time of war and trying to dream beyond our means and philosophize about things that we knew we had no access to. He stood for that, he was really young and articulate when he got killed."
And who will he be excited to see on Saturday?
"Motley Crue!"
Source: CANOE, June 29, 2005
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