Tag Archives: K’Naan

K’Naan Can’t Public Speak

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Editor’s Note: tomorrow at UBC there will be Terry Talks, which are kinda like TED Talks, but different because they’re organized and delivered by world-changing UBC students and faculty. The Terry Talks will be held in the Life Sciences Institute at UBC on October 2. And they will be awesome. If you haven’t signed up already, please do so and have some fun with it.

Hey, speaking of “awesome,” the TEDx Terry Talks team kicked things off last Friday, September 24, with a special guest speech talk presentation ecclectic-and-semi-ridiculous-performance by K’Naan. For information about K’Naan’s awesomeness, please read this previous post from Michelle and I. Honestly, I don’t know what to say about K’Naan’s talk – obviously it was sincere, thoughtful and amazing; however, it was also a totally discombobulated, kinda-jerky, mostly-confused, very-funny celebration of “community-engagement” rather than “speaking to an audience.” As a humble hommage to K’Naan’s style, flare and off-the-cuff fearlessness when it comes to saying things, I’ve simply copied and pasted the notes I took on my B-Berry below. Enjoy yourselves.

Popular musicians become Troubadors.

“This is not the school that hates me.”

Have a conversation with you rather than talk. Need to have a dialogue.

Don’t do a lot of talks. Sometimes do it as a form of therapy. Took
experiences and – in an honest way – use them to examine myself.

Somalia gave me poetry. “I feel sorry for the people who can’t speak
Somali…there’s more to the language … A lot is lost in translation.”

K’Naan brought Starbucks: “we’re stuck between our values and
convictions and, well, shit that tastes good.”

K’Naan supports iclickers – democracy in the classroom.

Fetima got played – he wouldn’t play Wavin’ Flag. Fair enough.

University – study the things you want and meet hot girls.

Who are “they”? “White People”. They are… It’s hard to explain
songs. The power and the powerless. The privileged and unprivileged.

“Songs are feelings”

“Only after I’ve written something do I know how I feel about a subject.”

Dusty foot philosopher is carnivalesque. Turns the sad African concept
on its head. “I liked haveing dusty feet. It made me feel connected to where I came from.

“Best thing about being in Canda…meeting Justin Beiber. He’s professional.”

Writers must write. Like a leech on your body. Writing is exercise for
the soul.

University is communal.

Leaders must always have it forced upon them. When you “want” to be a
leader you are no longer a leader. You MUST do it. You get busy by
wanting to be a leader. “It’s because no one else will do it, so I must do it.”

Share the fascination of traveling around the world with people you struggled with ten years ago – it keeps you grounded.

Takes a toll on your inner most core.

Country music is making the best music right now, so I’m going to go
to Nashville and get inspired.

If I don’t stop the shenanigans of this success then I will never make
a good album again.

For me, the soul is the left corner room in my mom’s house … Small light
appears in a blue room dusty with sun catching particles.

He was so, so, so shy – would just not come to school to miss talking in front of people. Irony of the world that he talks to people now.

Got called “Keenan” by ESL teachers – hilarious.

HUGE ego. So sincere, honest and good that it will bring hope instead of alienating resentment…as long as he puts down the friggin’ Starbucks next time!

So there it is. Thanks for being you, K’Naan. And, hey, you. Enjoy the TEDx Terry Talks this weekend!


Toronto’s Music Scene

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Misha Bower of the Bruce Peninsula

Years ago Thursday nights were for parties, cheap drinks at the Golden Lion and very late nights.  As I count down the last few weeks of my twenties, Thursday nights generally see me in bed at about the same time as every other weeknight.  Last Thursday, however, I found myself on a streetcar at 1:30 in the morning wondering if I’d make the last northbound subway.  The Bruce Peninsula’s tickets said nine o’clock and I naively assumed this meant they’d likely start the show at some point between ten and eleven.  Instead there were two opening acts, pushing the BPs back to midnight.  This put Katie and I in an awkward position, as we’d invited four people to come to the show with us.  Thankfully, after a few hours of waiting, the Bruce Peninsula put on an amazing show and everyone left really happy and only a little tired.  This concert was the last in a string of great concerts we’ve been to in venues around Toronto.

Friends in Bellwoods 2

This started with the Friends in Bellwoods 2 CD launch party, headlined by Ohbijou at Lee’s Palace last August.  This double CD introduced Katie and I to a lot of great local acts and inspired us to start following the concert listings more closely.  These concerts have made me realized just how amazing Toronto’s music scene is at the moment. I already knew Toronto has produced a range of major successes like the many groups that combine to make the Broken Social Scene (including Feist and Metric), Blue Rodeo, and John’s favorite rapper: K’naan.  Sadly, the cost of tickets to see major shows at venues like Massey Hall normally exceeds the limits of my student budget.  Thankfully, there are dozens of great bands on some of the smaller independent labels in Toronto who play cheaper shows at Toronto’s smaller venues – (many of which are featured on the Friends in Bellwoods charity compilation CD).  Not only do these shows cost less money, but you also feel more connected with the local community when you are sitting a few rows back from the band’s parents or friends.

Six Shooter Records

Six Shooter Records has an amazing list of artists including Justin Rutledge, Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet.  We were lucky enough to see these three perform at one of my favorite Toronto Venues, Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in the Annex neighbourhood.  In the months that followed we returned to the church twice more to see Basia Bulat and the Great Lake Swimmers.  The acoustics in this nineteenth-century building more than make up for the somewhat subdued atmosphere (not much dancing on the pews).  If you are not familiar with Basia Bulat yet, check out this video from a CBC radio program:

Finally, returning to last week, we discovered a new venue on Dundas West called the Garrison.  It had a small stage in the back of an unfinished bar.  This led to crowding, as the Bruce Peninsula had between 7 and 9 people on stage.  Their high energy gospel-choir-folk-prog rock had me rocking and clapping awkwardly in something resembling dancing as the power and energy of Marsha Bower’s and Neil Haverty’s voices blew us all away.  Have you been to a great local show lately?  Please share suggestions of local bands that might make there way to Toronto in the months ahead.

For more on the Toronto Music scene, watch some of the short films produced by City Sonic, including this one on Justin Rutledge’s start at the Cameron House:

Your Digital Fill – Wavin’ Flag for Haiti

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Highlights include, but are not limited to the following:

  1. K’Naan is a soulful poet, community-builder and world-changer of near-epic proportions all rolled into one; we are lucky to
  2. Jim Cuddy and Tom Cochrane, somehow, found their way into a “Young Artists” collaboration – well done, you hipsters, you!
  3. Hawkesly Workman is so, so, so ridiculous – I’m pretty sure he’s the only guy you can’t understand in the video.
  4. Jully Black and the Young Lady from the Olympics have amazing, amazing pipes. Olympic Lady, you have redeemed yourself and I’m sorry if a part of your soul died a little because people unjustifiably grew to dislike you because CTV and TSN played your song every 17 seconds for nearly a month.
  5. No Ego. For what appears to be a day/weekend of singing, dancing, connecting, and community-building, some people with truly gigantic egos put them aside and came together to make a difference. And it’s a beautiful thing!

Have fun with this!

- JCH

K’Naan’s Cultural Olympiad

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knaanpub1My birthday is coming up (it’s Saturday, February 27 and thanks so much for the card, by the by) and you can imagine my surprise when my Special Lady, Michelle, told me we were going to see K’Naan at the Orpheum Theatre. Needless to say, I was pretty darn excited.

Brief tangent: if you haven’t taken in a show or cultural event at the Orpheum, please do it soon. The place is as spectacular as it is intimate.

I will venture a guess and assume that 72% of visitors to this online news magazine know about K’Naan. Whether you do or not, the 10 minute video below acts as a pretty darn amazing introduction to one of the world’s most important artists. Enjoy!

Full disclosure. K’Naan is a sell out. Or so a handful of mangey protestors argued as thousands of fans excitedly lined up to see a young man who defines himself as “made in Somalia and raised in Toronto.” Recently, K’Naan signed a lucrative contract with corporate up-and-comer, Coca Cola – some folks argue this goes against his truly humbling, authentic, “man of the people” image. I will admit, combining a Coca Cola sponsorship with a stopover at the Olympics (the Cultural Olympiad is sponsored by Bell) amid chatter that artists are being “muzzled” by sponsors complicated my shining opinion of K’Naan.

When the protestors approached Michelle, though, things weren’t so complicated. Her argument went like this: Look. I’m not saying that you don’t have a point. But really, at the end of the day, K’Naan’s message is positive, empowering and inspiring. Through his songs he tells a story of forgiveness, respect, tolerance, and hope. Why wouldn’t we want this message to spread through any means possible, reaching individuals it otherwise would not have? Coke is powerful – take the example of GreenPeace, who tried for 15 years to have greener refridgeration technology approved in Canada. Coca Cola, in an attempt to be more environmentally sustainable, was able to get their climate-friendly vending machines and coolers approved for use in Canada in just one year, in time for the 2010 Olympics – opening the door for approval of green refridgerators and coolers. Instead of working against the man, it is often so much more effective to work with the man to effect change.

Michelle and I, being superawesome nerds, developed an evaluation rubric for the concert based on four categories – each category is worth five points. Here we go:

Edutainment

A good amount (like, 30) of parents brought their kids to the concert. In the lineup – amidst the inarticulate, yet passionate, protestors – I struck up a conversation with a little one (and her dad, because I’m not creepy) about the concert ahead. She said she was excited because her class watched a documentary about what K’Naan is doing in East Africa to raise awareness about women’s rights, child labour/poverty and the overall plight of people who live in “the hardest place on Earth.” He also told powerful stories and shook his ass like a maniac. Recent findings show kids love stuff like that.

Final Score: 5/5.

Dancibility

Rap concerts suck. There. I said it. Unless an artist has Timbaland mixin his pop-fresh beats live on stage, well, it all just sounds like muffled talking to the thump-thump of the base. And people can’t really dance to such sounds. Especially white people. And, let’s be honest about the crowd, this was/is Vancouver. But this was not a rap concert. It was a delightful hybird of rock/hip-hop/spoken word/stand up comedy with interludes of musical poetry. Whether he was whispering quietly to the audience or “lighting this mutherf*ckin’ joint” everybody could dance…to the best of their ability.

Final Score: 4/5

Creativity

Still moved by K’Naan’s amazing, humbling ability to wear his heart on his sleeve, this concert truly ran the gamut of sensation: from the hilarious and ridiculous to the tragically sad. Few people on this planet can honestly live up to the title of “Rapper, Poet, Philosopher, Storyteller, and Rock Star” – if he were the kind of guy to have business cards, K’Naan would have the best ones ever.

Final Score: 6/5

Authenticity

Here’s the deal. Sell-out or not, the part of the concert when K’Naan told the feeble VANOC official that he’s “not finished playing” – whether this came about because of his “mood” or his penchent for counterculture or his subscribing to African Time, this part of the show was delightfully authentic. I was not without my reservations, as K’Naan needlessly name-dropped Bob Marley and, to all the fans out there, here’s a piece of advice: when someone is singing/talking about their dead childhood girlfriend who left this world in the most terrible of circumstances, well, it’s not supercool to cheer about it. Idiots. Finally, Coke-fueled or not, seeing that many people sing to Wavin Flag was the most authentic thing I’ve seen during these Olympics. Building community through music? Check! Well done, K’Naan.

Final Score: 5/5

With a total score of 20/20 it’s pretty clear that K’Naan rocked the Orpheum. More importantly, though, in a world where most of us have lost faith in business – just ask Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management – perhaps it’s not such a bad thing to have K’Naan, a poetic champion of the people, as a collaborator with the biggest business on Earth. After all, change takes a community…

- Written by The Bornks!