K'Naan Expands on Nas's Africa Comments

Nas recently got real at a press conference , where he stated that a lot of artists are afraid to go to Africa, because they're so ill informed by the media, which Somali spitter K'Naan elaborated on. K'Naan spoke exclusively with HipHopDX, where he broke down his knowledge of how Americans interpret Africa to be. Here are some highlights from the interview: DX: You noted on your new single with Nas, "Nothing To Lose" , "No, I don't know pilots / Nigga, I know pirates," and recently Nas himself was quoted in reference to situations like today's news, saying, "There's horror stories about Africa that's out of this world ... but I went there and I figured out that there's been a lot of lies told to American people about what's going on there." I know you're not an American citizen, but I just feel compelled to ask you if you think President Obama has proven himself to be part of that propaganda machine in regards to your homeland? K'Naan: Well, listen, I think the propaganda machine is us, as human beings. I think we often seek out the kind of information that suits us best. So why we know about certain things that favor our own opinions is just really saying much more about the human being than it is about any kind of an organization or a governmental stance. If you are on HipHopDX and your information solely is based on simply what Hip Hoppers are saying and the rest is coming out of CNN, that's really a choice that you make. If you broaden your horizons and your mind and you figure out, "Well, really there's more to the world than what CNN is telling me, I could read up on something," that's another kind of a choice that we make. So I think really the responsibility – although some is with others – I would rather put the responsibility on myself and what I consume so that I have control over it. DX: Going back to that Nas interview, he was also quoted as saying, "One thing about us African-Americans and Africans, we don't communicate. We don't talk. We don't see a reason to talk. We don't even get along. There's a lot of Africans that don't like African Americans, at all. They look down on us; they got their own little racial names for us. We've been pulled apart, for years." Anything you wanna add to what Nas said? K'Naan: I think he's right. And it's an unfortunate circumstance. But you know, me and Nas talk, all the time. I talked to Nas yesterday. So I think the responsibility [to bridge that divide] is partly with us as artists. That's why you got songs like "Nothing To Lose." That's why you got albums like the Distant Relatives album with Nas and Damian Marley. That's why when me and Wale do something [it's to] try to expand the scope of what people are thinking about with regards to Africa. That's why it means something. The generations are changing and right now Africans and the way they think of African-Americans, or African-Americans and the way that they view Africans, is changing dramatically because we're able to see each other a lot more, we're able to communicate a lot more. The Internet has changed the distancing tools that have been used for so long [to divide us]. So the excuses are very shallow now.