Rapping in USA – First impressions · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

K'Naan: Rapping about war
He describes his first impression of America as “strange”, recalling the time his family first landed in New York. “I remember asking my father, ‘so this is America, huh?’ How is it possible that there's this great big building that's vacant and there's homeless people sleeping in front of it?” K'Naan didn't know a scrap of English, but was nevertheless impressed by the prolific hip-hop scene. Long regarded as the true expression of the modern African-American, hip-hop was something the rapper could understand, given his own life experiences.