by SCOTT C

It’s kind of a moot point these days to say that hip hop has gone worldwide, but many of the foreign incarnations of this American artform are contributing to the culture in ways that can only fortify and strengthen its progression. Showcasing that notion is the African Way show rolling through le Swimming this Friday, with South Africa’s Tumi and the Volume and Zaki Ibrahim, Ghana’s DJ Nana and K’naan. The latter, known as the Dusty Foot Philosopher, is a 27-year-old Somalian-born MC, now based out of Toronto, and although he is far from his East African home, his music connects the two solitudes with a unique and passionate creativity. The Mirror spoke to K’naan over the phone from Toronto.

Mirror: I want to talk to you about responsibility. There seem to be far fewer artists in Western and North American hip hop who take the responsibility to talk really about what’s going on, or some deeper point of view. I can see that you appear to have something deeper compelling you in your music. What is that?

K’naan: It’s an evident thing, like living is. You come from a certain experience that really does inform what you do and who you are. A lot of Western artists don’t really think that they have a lot that they should feel responsible for. Struggle isn’t so visible to them. I always relate back to where I come from and what my intent was in the beginning in this thinking music. It’s a natural state for me and not something I can say I think about.

M: So you’ve lived in Canada for half of your life and Somalia the other?

K: Yep. I was in Somalia for 14 years of my life, and then between the U.S. and Canada for the remainder.

M: I saw the video for “Soobax” [pronounced so-bah] on your Web site. That’s a hot video, man! It feels like your typical hip hop video, with the crew in the streets and the accompanying dancers, but the location takes it to another level altogether. Was that shot in Somalia?

K: Yeah. We wanted to shoot a video that connected with what the song was about. It’s a protest song, and the relevance of the location is that those people who we shot the video with, the women and children, are mostly people who have fled war situations in Somalia. This song is their voice. It protests against those who caused them to flee, and that’s why they genuinely feel what is being said in the song. We also wanted to maintain a sense of dignity, and show that African people do carry that sense while struggling. We in the West tend to capture visions of Africans struggling that are not dignified, but in the African eye, this is a dignified thing. I just wanted to have a video that showed the power and beauty of that.

Minute by minute

M: Tell me a bit about the LP you’re working on now, and how you came to hook up with Jarvis Church and Track & Field Productions.

K: I’m actually just finishing up the Dusty Foot Philosopher album over the next couple of days. I’m a child of war, an MC and a poet, and I really tried to take people on a journey with that. I actually connected with Jarvis after he was in a session a couple of years back with me, Esthero and Kardinal, where we were doing a piece for a charity. He was just fascinated by the way that I would rhyme. I wasn’t somebody that was known in Canada, so he suggested that we vibe together. So from there, we’ve just built a great relationship to collaborate and make music.

M: I gotta say, man, I really appreciate the history section of your Web site, where you break down your country’s past, even going into colonization. I also noticed that you say you’ve been warned about the public’s attention span. What’s that about?

K: The reason Westerners make three-and-a-half minute songs is because the culture has taken up every other available minute possible, so we’re bombarded with things and images and products, and people don’t have the capacity to listen and feel a song or an idea. That’s what I was talking about. Where I’m from, it’s normal to have an eight- or 12-minute song, and you see that in different regions of the world. On the Web site, I was just saying, listen, I don’t want to consume more of you, but this is important for you to take the time and read.

With Tumi and the Volume, Zaki Ibrahim and DJ Nana at le Swimming on Friday, Jan. 28, 10:30 p.m., $12

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