Sorry K'naan, you DO have a soul

Sometime last year I wrote some thoughts about K'naan's album Troubador, and I was pretty luke warm on the whole thing. My issues with the album were that it was over produced, had no heart, and I pointed to "If Rap Gets Jealous" ft. Kirk Hammett of Metallica as a prime example of why that was the case. Part of my distaste may come from the fact that the album included a guy from Metallica (douches!) who I'm picturing doing some kind of (douchey) underbite while he plays the guitar, but it also runs contrary to the "my music doesn't need no touch ups" line at the beginning of the song (at least the Dusty Foot version). Yes, I do get the irony of me complaining about a song where the message of the song is 'I don't care if you don't get what I'm trying to do here'. But, to be fair, the message is more about the rap/rock genre than it is about artistic integrity.

That was the crux of my beef with Troubador -- the unnecessary guest appearances by the Metallica, the Maroon 5 guy, Damien Marley, etc., etc., and the whole aesthetic of 'we need a bunch of guests so that we can reach a wider demographic'. More than anything, I would say that it was disappointing that music that has the potential to be so meaningful gets glossed over so that it becomes "more appealing". I had basically written off K'naan as a pawn of whatever record label snatched him up, until the other morning...

... when I watched NPR's 'Tiny Desk Concert' ft. K'naan and friends where he performed "Take A Minute", "Fatima", and "Waving Flag"... which brought me back to all the reasons I thought The Dusty Foot Philosopher was so interesting/moving and really, really, catchy at points. His story and his story telling are so compelling that it seems like all he needs to do is make sure the production on his albums doesn't ruin it. Of course, with a live performance in the NPR office it's pretty easy to avoid over producing, but it'll be interesting to see how K'naan moves forward. Now that he's "cashed in" -- it'd be very interesting to find out whether he's actually made any money, though with "Waving Flag" being the 2010 World Cup song I suspect he's making some serious coin from that -- what route he goes (hip hop or hip pop?). Is this worth even talking about at all, because maybe with his new found financial security he doesn't have anything interesting left to say anyways. I hope not, because when K'naan's production team gets out of his way I feel like his one of the most interesting, charismatic artists of any genre around...