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Born in Somalia,[3] K'naan spent his childhood in Mogadishu[4] and lived there during the Somali Civil War, which began in 1991. His aunt, Magool, was one of Somalia's most famous singers. K'naan's grandfather, Haji Mohamed, was a poet. He is Muslim,[5] and his name, Keinan, means "traveler" in the Somali language. He spent the early years of his life listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier. When he was 13, K'naan, his mother, and his three siblings, older brother, Liban, and younger sisters Naciimo, Sagal were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in New York City, where they stayed briefly before moving to Canada, to the Toronto neighbourhood of Rexdale,[6] where there was a large Somali community and his family still resides.[7] There, K'naan began learning English, partly by listening to hip hop albums by artists like Nas and Rakim. Despite the fact that he could not yet speak the language, the young K'naan taught himself hip hop and rap diction, copying the lyrics and style phonetically.[8] He then also began rapping.[9]
Critics have said K'naan has "a sound that fuses Bob Marley, conscious American hip hop, and brilliant protest poetry."[9] His voice and style have been compared to Eminem,[8] but his subject matter is very different; according to K'naan, he makes "urgent music with a message", talking about the situation in his homeland of Somalia and calling for an end to violence and bloodshed.[18] He specifically tries to avoid gangsta rap clichés and posturing,[19] saying:“ All Somalis know that gangsterism isn't to brag about. The kids that I was growing up with [in Rexdale] would wear baggy [track] suit pants, and a little jacket from Zellers or something, and they'd walk into school, and all the cool kids would be like, 'Ah, man, look at these Somalis. Yo, you're a punk!' And the other kid won't say nothing, but that kid, probably, has killed fifteen people.[10]
