The product of a creative family, K’NAAN fled Mogadishu with his family at age 13. After learning English, partly by immersing himself in the classic hip-hop albums of the ‘90s, he came to prominence in 1999 with a spoken word performance at the United Nations that caught the attention of Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour.

K’NAAN’s debut album, 2005’s The Dusty Foot Philosopher, won the Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year, and was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. He signed with A&M/Octone and released the follow-up, Troubadour, in 2009, which won two more Junos, for Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year. Along the way he has collaborated with the likes of Mary J. Blige, the Roots, Adam Levine, Mos Def, Keane, and Damian Marley.

Following the releases of his sophomore album, Troubadour, K’NAAN was declared an “Artist to Watch” by Rolling Stone, NPR, The Los Angeles Times and MTV. The album included his multiplatinum single “Wavin’ Flag,” which saw worldwide success after being selected by Coca-Cola as their theme song for their FIFA 2010 FIFA World Cup™ campaign.

Beyond the expansion in the scope of his writing, K’NAAN points to several other songs on Country, God Or The Girl as breakthroughs of a more musical kind. “More Beautiful Than Silence” sees him looking both back and forward. “That really goes back to the tradition of more hard-edged street rhymes, juxtaposed with romantic hooks—like French melodies against war-torn raps,” he says. “Pre-Troubadour, I was known for my unapologetic rhymes, for being able to call out a situation without political compromise. But I didn't have the melodic chops to execute that, and I’m able to do both now.”

K’NAAN offers a vision in which the personal is the political, but the personal is also the personal. “Being known for my consciousness and activism can be limiting,” he says. “I do care about the state of the world, but it’s no less true that I care about love and betrayal, heartbreak and pain and loyalty. It's dishonest to ignore parts of yourself just to sustain the idea that people have of you. It would be comfortable for me to just write about politics and consciousness and stay where my fans know me. But to progress musically, I had to open myself up.”