It seems like the Godfathers of rap are running out of hard-knock fodder for their gangsta rhyme schemes. Yeah, it’s kinda tough to rap about the streets when your kids have their own shows on MTV (Snoop Dogg’s Fatherhood & Run DMC’s Daddy’s Girls).
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Arguably, rap music is rooted in the Blues. Hardship is an essential ingredient to the anthems of the genre.
If you’re hungry for new music, check out Rapper K-Naan originally from the slums of Mogadishu, Somalia.
He grew up listening to American gangsta rap and while respectful of their style and contributions he finds spitting about drive-bys and Bling small stuff compared to missiles and famine:
“Where rocket-propelled grenades are fired around you on a daily … a guy bragging on TV talking about how gangster he is?” K’Naan says. “For us, it’s more a source of entertainment. It’s more like a comedy or something we watch. Say, ‘Oh wow, that’s kind of cute of American gangsters.’ But it isn’t hardcore, it isn’t that bad. Let’s get things in perspective, you know?” – K-Naan
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January 27th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Pretty sick ! I added two songs to listen cause his sound is dope !
January 27th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
“somalia” is solid.