K'naan Quotes

• Mindless violence, well let me try to paint it.
  Here's the 5 steps in hopes to explain it:
  
  1, It's me and my Nation against the World
  2, Then me and my Clan against the Nation
  3, Then me and my Fam against the Clan
  4, Then me and my Brother, we no hesitation
  Go against the Fam until they cave in
  5, Now who's left in this deadly equation?
  
  That's right, it's me against my Brother
  Then we point a Kalashnikov
  And kill one another.

  K'naan

  Brother, Rap, Hip Hop

  18 Copy quote

• It's better to light a candle than to curse the dark
  In the eyes of the youth, there are question marks

  K'naan

  Eye, Dark, Light

  Song: In The Beginning

  19 Copy quote

• Until the lion learns to speak, the tales of hunting will be weak.

  K'naan

  Hunting, Lions, Speak

  Song: Until the Lion Learns to Speak

  15 Copy quote

• The people of Somalia just do not have a voice. They are to me the most forgotten people in the world.

  K'naan

  Voice, People, World

  64 Copy quote

• I'm not about trying to get and get and get. I feel good when I get, but I kind of feel better when I give.

  K'naan

  Feel Better, Giving, Feel Good

  "K’naan: Straight Outta Mogadishu". Interview with Eamon Kricher-Allen, www.motherjones.com. March 2009.

  13 Copy quote

• When I get older, I will be stronger
  They’ll call me freedom, just like a Wavin’ Flag

  K'naan

  Freedom, Stronger, Flags

  Song: Wavin' Flag, Album: Troubadour, 2010

  13 Copy quote

• And any man who knows a thing, knows he knows not a damn, damn thing at all.

  K'naan

  Men, Damn, Knows

  Song: Take A Minute, Album: Troubadour, 2009

  14 Copy quote

• To reach your goal authentically is probably, in the end, going to mean much more to you than having reached it in a false way.

  K'naan

  Mean, Goal, Way

  "K'Naan On Cheapening His Music For The Money". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. December 10, 2012.

  9 Copy quote

• My life owes me. Like an overdose, I'm slowly
  Drifting into the arms of trouble, then trouble holds me

  K'naan

  Rap, Arms, Trouble

  14 Copy quote

• It's not longer 'Look what I can do, I can do it better then you.' It's just I am.

  K'naan

  Life, Looks, I Can Do It

  9 Copy quote

• I faced quite a few challenging times, and in front of those, I was more positive than some people not facing those conditions. I'm actually of the belief now that it is that struggle that offers you that open-hearted hope.

  K'naan

  Struggle, People, Challenges

  8 Copy quote

• You have to let the world speak to you and then you speak, you know, so I'm in that moment now where I'm finding the world's voice.

  K'naan

  Voice, World, Speak

  8 Copy quote

• When I get older, I will be stronger

  K'naan

  Stronger

  Song: Wavin' Flag 2, 2010

  9 Copy quote

• I enjoy mediation. I think the artist's position is often to mend the things we feel are broken. Whether that's between two cultures or two thoughts. We're always trying to reach, trying to expand something.

  K'naan

  Thinking, Artist, Always Trying

  "Discovery: K’Naan" by Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 27, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

• Somalis really are very musically sophisticated, and they're about their own thing.

  K'naan

  Sophisticated

  "K’naan: Straight Outta Mogadishu". Interview with Eamon Kricher-Allen, www.motherjones.com. March 2009.

  10 Copy quote

• It is the very survival of the streets that makes children pick up guns in Somalia, not some older, wide-eyed rebel leader. My intimate experiences during these years are something which I have shared with people through my music but am very careful about how they are addressed.

  K'naan

  Children, Gun, Years

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  8 Copy quote

• I learned to fire guns at the age of nine or so, but luckily was not out killing people. We zigzagged the streets to escape those trying to kill us. I guess it would have been a matter of time till I turned around with a gun myself, to go after those coming for us. But I was fortunate. The grenade incident was about an explosion which destroyed a section of my school, from a grenade that me and my cousin detonated by accident. We both lived to tell about it.

  K'naan

  Cousin, School, Gun

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• The pirates are serving a purpose right now. They come from regions which have been completely ignored, and Westerners have tried to destroy these regions by their constant plundering of resources and by the illegal dumping of nuclear waste. The pirates really began in order to discourage these actions - initially. And then the business became lucrative.

  K'naan

  Order, Pirate, Nuclear

  "K’naan: Straight Outta Mogadishu". Interview with Eamon Kircher-Allen, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2009.

  7 Copy quote

• Hip-hop in Africa has been very often a duplication of an American experience, but in a context that's totally alien to it.

  K'naan

  Hip Hop, Hips, Aliens

  7 Copy quote

• I'm writing from a place of - a center of authenticity, somewhere that only I know how to write from.

  K'naan

  Writing, Authenticity, Know How

  "K'Naan On Cheapening His Music For The Money". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. December 10, 2012.

  8 Copy quote

• It was interesting to find how dominating American vision is all over the world. I think there's something to be said about the world's mindset and its economics and all of that, and I think it affects the way we see ourselves and it affects music.

  K'naan

  Thinking, Interesting, Vision

  5 Copy quote

• It was not my dream to be an artist. How could it have been? I thought, artist, much like a leader, was something you either were or weren't. Never something you set out to be.

  K'naan

  Dream, Artist, Leader

  "My Life as an Artist: A Country Disguised as a Person" by K’naan, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 5, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

• There's definitely anger, the demand of more from the world, a demand for justice. There's no other way I can perform the vocals than the way you hear them. It's not just the words, it's what is being felt.

  K'naan

  Justice, World

  Source: www.macleans.ca

  4 Copy quote

• I wasn't making music consciously when I was younger. I was a musician, but that has its own stigmas. Anywhere on the planet, it's one of the more undervalued positions.

  K'naan

  Musician, Planets, Stigma

  "Discovery: K’naan" by Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 27, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• I think it's a mistake to work on success in career. I've worked on my passions obsessively. How can I say what I want to say more precisely than the last time I said it? Success is such an elusive concept. When you work for it, I think you get it in a way you might regret it.

  K'naan

  Regret, Mistake, Passion

  "Discovery: K’Naan" by Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. January 27, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

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