It’s not a stretch to think that if Eminem were Somali, he’d sound exactly like K’NAAN – a Somali-Canadian poet and rapper who learned English as a boy in Mogadishu partially by listening to Nas, Rakim and other soulfoul rappers. But the comparison only goes so far as their frenetic style.

Gangsta rappers often rhyme about life on the streets, sometimes comparing it to war. But K’NAAN lived through it – literally. He grew up during the Somali Civil War in in the district of Wardhiigleey (“The Lake of Blood”), where machine guns, warlords and rock-propelled grenades were as commonplace as blinking.

No wonder K’NAAN spits, “If I rhyme about home and got descriptive /I’d make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit.”

K’NAAN will gain mass exposure in 2009 for late 2008′s Troubadour, but “Dusty Foot Philosopher” from the self-titled release in 2005 is the most proper of introductions to this immense talent.

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