I am here in LA trying to stay out of this sweltering heat chilling with my boy Rayzak the Somalian Don Dadda and Sol Guy; for all of you Canadians you may know Sol from the 4 Real series on MTV canada. Anyway, Sol manages an artist named K'Naan from Toronto via Somalia.
Last summer Sol was doing an episode of 4 Real with Cameron Diaz in Peru (when you get a chance go to www.4real.com to learn more about the series.) and he needed someone to fill in as manager on K'Naan's european tour while he was away. I got the call and was pleased because one of the dates was at the Glastonbury festival in England; I've always wanted to go to this legenary festival but never had the opportunity. Well, I have a few memories of that day and let me just say that all of them are bizaar. First of all, I will never go back to that freaking mud pile, rainy, crazy ses pool of a festival again unless I'm working with Fuking U2 and they helecopter our asses on and off the stage for soundcheck and performance. We ran into Amy Winehouse back stage; this was before she really blew up and even though her buzz was crazy, I had never seen her in person. Let me just say, without any exaggeration; when I saw her, I was stopped in my tracks at how deathly sick and crazy she looked. It literally jarred me; the feeling I had was; someone's gotta save this chick or she's going to die. The other weird moment was walking from one end of the festival to the next to go see this hoola hoop artist perform at a gay dance party. Well, it was bizaar, because here I am sludging through knee high mud in the middle of like mid-fck England under moonlight with a Somalian rapper and a half German half Somalian hoola hoop artist (by the way this chick was one of the hottest woman of all time) both probably being the only of there kind on earth.
So here I am in LA a year later with Sol and Rayzak (K'Naan is in Miami and I won't be able to see him until Tuesday and I leave that night, drats!) band listening to demo's from K'Naan's new album to be released on Octone/Interscope (Maroon 5). I must say; I am sooooooo happy that a somewhat major label is going to invest in promoting music like that. Many of the sounds on K'Naan's new album were recorded in Bob Marley's Legendary Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston Jamaica (K'Naan is the dude in the picture with the guitar and Rayzak in sitting in front of him with the cheesing), with Legendary Jamaican session musicians and Damian Marley and the legendary Track and Field team out of Toronto on production. This sound that they came up with (a mixture of Hip Hop, Pop, and East African Folk music) is brilliant and infectious. K'Naan also raps and sings about the truth of poverty and the struggle for liberation. Certain songs actually brought tears to my eyes and others joy to my heart. All I could think about while listening to him was Lil' Wayne. Now, I'm not really hated on Weezie, but I just find it a little crazy that this dude has the fastest seling album in year of any genre out right now (Platinum in less then a week) and I can't really say that anything that he does really moves me. I mean at this point he has become a pop star and image wise he's just kinda, let's admit it fucked up and kind of tragic. Kind of like the person I mentioned earlier who blew up this year. It makes almost wonder if we have become Jerry Springered as a cultured and are voyeuristically obssessed with the tragic lives of others. What happed to liking beauty for beauty's sake. I don't want to over hype K'Naan's next album it because it's not coming out until next year, but if you aren't hip to him check out his last album the Dusty Foot Philosopher; it finally gets released (after 2 years in Canada, Australia, and Europe) in the US on Tuesday.
Well, that's all i have to say about that!
Cheers
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