K’NAAN…

The Dusty foot Philosopher has arrived

words JT shutter INDOOR RECESS

When you log onto www.thedustyfoot.com you will find that K’Naan isn’t just the next big thing in hip hop music, poetry or even human rights… he truly is a philosopher. This is taken from his site:

“The meaning of philosophy, to a degree, is the knowledge of truth. But it is also the system of values by which one measures that truth. There are two ways of receiving knowledge of distinct expression; knowledge which is either unique or verifies in different light what was before, regarding concepts of the understanding of the reality of God, the universe and the self.”

Klublife was honoured to get the call from Indoor Recess to get some time with K’Naan before he departed for his African tour this fall.

Klublife: So how did you become the dusty foot philosopher?

K’Naan: I have branded myself as the dusty foot philosopher after thinking about what I wanted to represent the “have nots” philosophy, that of the young kids who are able to dream beyond their means and think about things in this universe that they have not read about…so they’re philosophers intrinsically and culturally and poetically without having the means to be an avid reader or a traveler. 

Klublife: When did you decide to take your poetry and make it into a full-length album?

K’Naan: It was events that marked the reasoning behind that. Often people saw my poetry as music as well. They would always say, well you should do music because your poetry facilitates music. At some point it became obvious when I had done a song called “Blues for the Horn.” “Blues for the Horn” was originally a poem that went on for about three minutes, and then I just thought what if I do this under a track that I feel represents the depth of blues? The sadness is within “Blues for the Horn,” so I was able to do a track with live instrumentation with live horns and this deep, blue-sounding track. When I had done that, I knew that it was music that my poetry was meant to sleep with.

K’Naan: I want to go back into the studio as soon as possible. People won’t let me ’cause I have to tour, but I am dying to make my next album. People are always emailing me now. They are emailing me and asking me, hey I love your album, but that song you did is not on it. Basically every two weeks we make a new song and just perform it. I have now got almost an album of songs in my head and I am dying to get it off. But we do have plans to do a lot more. We are finding the right type of partnership, people who are in major places but who are huge fans of what I am doing. So it is coming together.

Be on the lookout for K’Naan to be back in the studio in early 2006 and have something fresh for the airwaves by the Fall!