K’Naan’s album, “Dusty Foot Philosopher (2005),” was an album that thoroughly discussed the life of a Somalia immigrant. The majority of the album is in English despite track 2. Track 13 is also spoken in K’Naan’s Somali native language, as he featured another artist named, Mwafrika, who did not speak English throughout the entire song. On track 4 K’Naan expresses his living standards when he described his home to be made of brick white washed walls and tin roof tops. K’Naan does a great job expressing the struggle that goes on in Somalia on track 3, entitled “What’s Hardcore”. He talks about Somalian children being born with AK-47 in their hands and being trained to shoot at a young age. He also talks about how riots are started daily throughout his hometown of Mogadishu.
He represents Africa (Somalia) throughout his album. One specific topic K’Naan covered was when he talked about the importance of music. People need music like people need water. He also discusses some of the food he grew up on and the religion that was enforced in his home. Some of the politics K’Naan talked about was how the U.S government claims to help but yet kids still walk around with guns and no aid, with poverty continuing to increase. The intended audience is younger group of individuals because the younger generation is one who would listen and care about some of the controversial issues that go on in African countries. He doesn’t really talk about African American too much on his album. The album was overall a really good album. Its opened my eyes to a more poetic and philosophical version of hip hop.