K'NAAN mixtape

Somalian rapper K'NAAN first caught my attention with his song Take A Minute off his album Troubadour.  The song which I found via a Tiny Desk Concert has a catchy beat mixed with piano tunes.  I found the whole album to be equally enjoyable.

ANYWAY, K'NAAN, in keeping with the current hip-hop trend, released a mixtape 'trilogy' that tributes Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician/activist who is "arguably the most influential artist to emerge from Africa this century", Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan.  The mixtape was released in three parts and then combined into a deluxe edition and called The Messengers.  You can read a pretty cool interview about the whole project here.  The mixtape is available for free and, although I have not had much time to listen, it is well worth the 5 minutes of download time and 165 mb of space.

Get --->  K'NAAN - The Messengers

Listen to "Take a Minute"