(Blog) Somalia-Canadian rapper K'Naan stole beats from Oromo singer
Published 06/11/2009
- 2:30 a.m. GMT
(Blog) Somalia-Canadian rapper K'Naan stole beats from Oromo singer?
By Blogger Jaalala
Why would an African steal songs and beats from another African? I just heard this week that one of my new favorite singers/rappers, Somali-Canadian K'Naan, stole the beats of Oromo-Ethiopian singer Tilahun Gessesse. Even worse, K'Naan is getting millions of hits, awards and fame from these songs at the same time while the great legend Tilahun recently passed away. Tilahun was one of the best muti-ethnic singers in Ethiopian history, very talented and the first Oromo singer to use modern mass media technology for Afan Oromo songs. Especially for those who love oldies tunes, Tilahune's songs will surely live forever.
It is sad that K'Naan did not respect Tilahun and other singers which he copied beats from. It is one thing to casually acknowledge that he was influenced by music from Ethiopia, which he had admitted before on the sideline. But it is completely another thing to copy and paste full similar themes and exactly identical beats from other singers WITHOUT GIVING FORMAL CREDIT to the original composer (s). The somali rapper K'Naan should respect fellow African singers instead of making money from other people's work or not giving credit.
Please watch the video below and judge for yourself.
By the way, i liked K'Naan and his songs. He got skills and a growing African fan base. He was even wearing an Ethiopian flag wristband in some of his music videos. (not many somalis would ever do that) Some of his songs are simply amazing but if he hopes to keep his fans, he should apoligize or formally give credit to Tilahun and other singers, composers he stole works from.
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My Name is Sol Guy I am K'naan's manager. Can you please do your homework before you post things like this? Have you ever heard of a thing called sampling? Most of your favorite Hip Hop Music and other genres use it frequently. When you sample you are required to pay a fee and give the artist you sampled from a publishing share. Fort every song we sample don Troubadour we did just that. We honored the original and never once stated that we did not use these sample. In fact if you actually bought the album as opposed to downloading it you would see that we also credit everyone who we sampled. How can you be so so misinformed and so righteous at the same time? Get it together
i didn't know somalis know how to rap.. what happened to the islamic law and all that strict stuff??? people are getting their hands cut off by alshabab in somalia even for watching football, let alone raping like this!!!
I hope knan will try to sing for his country so that other somalis can have the SAME freedom to enjoy music and art like he does
If you read the liner notes of Troubadour and The Dusty Foot Philosopher you will see that K'naan got clearance for the samples he used and gives the original artist credit. Get your facts straight before you print such falsehoods that throw darkness on a brilliant talent.
Its not stealing, its call sampling, which means you sample the beat and take beep or same of it and create your own.
and K’naan sample lots of African early 70’s and 60’s music to honour and make people in the west aware of the richness of African music and artists in the past.
