In K’Naan’s new album entitled, “Country, God or the Girl (2012),” the entire album was spoken in English. In the first song, “seed,” K’Naan speaks on him being planted into the society of violence as a young child in Somalia. ” I was a seed planted, my lover is in a refugee camp, over sees i grew free i grew, my roots and became a tree some how, they never gonna cut me down.” In the quote he also refers to his immigration to the U.S, in which it allowed him to grow free and shaped him as a man.
In the song “Coming to America,” K’Naan also speaks on his immigration from Somalia to America. He speaks on how he once was apart of the Gorilla rebel group as a young child, attending school with weapons because thats all he knew. He also spoke about things like Malaria, stating that American hoods cannot compare to the killer disease.
K’Naan does not speak on African immigration as much as he did his last album, its more so focused on his immigration. K’Naan will always represent his country in positive ways in all of his albums. In this album he represented his country more by discussing his participation in the countries fight. In the song “Coming to America,” K’Naan speaks on coming to America, his second home, and then found himself almost getting arrested but was able to avoid it by going back to Somalia. What i got out of that verse was that America is supposed to be the land of opportunity and chance but evry chance they get. They look to lock those up looking for a chance to better themselves.
T his album strictly targets the younger audiende, wile still committing to K’Naan’s political routes. Because the album as a lot of features, such as Nelly Furtado, Will.i.am, and Nas, the album more so baste itself on a younger audience. The album did not speak on African Americans as much, even though K’Naan’s lyRics did consist of the word “nigga.” I personally did not like this album as much as the last album. This album was a lot more main stream instead of the normal political message it gave in the last album. The album was not my favorite but i did indeed bring a message across and was enjoyable at times.