The Messengers

Now I know everyone already went crazy for K'NAAN, but since I'm not a huge hip hop fan, I wasn't really on board. But I read about his mixtape project The Messengers on the All Songs Considered blog and thought I'd give it a chance. I'm a sucker for free music. If it's free, I'll check it out. In fact, I was pretty blown away. In this project, K'NAAN and J.Period present Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan as musical "messengers." Mixing achival audio interviews and news stories that contextualize the artists, songs from the three singers, personal narration from K'NAAN, and original raps and remixes, the 30+ track collection is evidence of a young singer with an incredibly deep and sophisticated relationship with these three elders. K'NAAN gives each of these revolutionary singers new significance for the 21st century by engaging in dialogues with them through their music. By distributing his project for free at shows and online, K'NAAN takes the gifts of inspiration he received from these three messengers, and passes it on. Give it a listen, and let me know what you think.