Resistance…

For some of you, regular readers, this artist will be hard to stomach because he uses foul language in his material. Or you may not really dig hip hop music. And there may be a number of other visceral reactions that produce disdain for this artist. However, K'naan (for some background on his life check this out) receives a high endorsement from me. And his music and career trigger some nagging questions regarding racism and resistance.

You should listen to his music even though you will struggle to get past his use of the f-word. His music has an authentic quality that is rare these days. His popular acclaim is a compelling testament that people can resonate and engage with thoughtful and provocative music (even if it does carry a parental advisory). In the lyrics of his latest work Troubadour K'naan takes on his own genre with a blazing furry (some might even say it is overkill). Essentially he says, "Hey you rappers think that you have street cred but you don't know the hard core life until you have grown up with an automatic riffle in your hands!" K'naan should know a little about conflict. His lyrics are sharp and they describe the reality of living in a third world country riddled with war and poverty. He infuses hope into the darkness of these situations. He also sees his own success in a significantly divergent light than most in the music business. He repeatedly acknowledges the extreme privilege of his position and his address the disparity between the pleasure of his success and the harsh reality of countrymates in Somalia. This is where the real honest seems most evident. Not only that – it is impossible to listen to his music and feel the indictment (even condemnation) that rests on the shoulders of western culture and political ventures.

On a larger scale his music provokes the question that has been haunting me lately. How is meaningful resistance to racial oppression enacted? More specifically, is it necessary to engage with the dominant systems (in this case the western music industry) that reproduce privilege in order to affect a meaningful counterpoint or resistance? In K'naan case, it seems clear that his success as a musical artist means that he has successfully negotiated the disadvantages of his national (and perhaps even racial) background. This in itself might signal some form of resistance. On top of that, through his music he is able to highlight the plight of his fellow Somalis. This is resistance as well since this type of discourse lies well beyond the scope of most hip hop music (sex, guns, and the 'hood). But does the fact that he has engaged with the system mean complicity with a western system of domination that keeps on subjugating people and leaving certain groups privileged and more importantly underprivileged? There is no doubt a homogenizing effect that the 'music industry' has on artists that sanitizes and sterilizes the music itself. This is as I have mentioned earlier a product of the fact that in order to be a recording artist one must sell records to people. So the whim of the people rules the day. What must haunt K'naan and does me is that his music, as honest and provocative as it is, could be seen as a prostitution of a people and situation at the expense of record sales. What I mean is that there is a danger that the horrible plight of the Somali people could become merely a tool to advance what is essentially a tool of western hegemony. I think this is what produces the ultimate conundrum of effective resistance. ::Participation in the system in order to enable a resistance or avoidance of the system to produce a different sort of resistance:: Hmmm…

Until then check out this guys music. I am going to recommend "Wavin' Flag" as a starter for those of you queasy with the lyric stuff. But here is another song that captures the tone of his message and I think for the most part it is clean (clean hmmm it strikes me that even that term is a highly racialized term…more on that later perhaps).