他离开索马里的年龄为13岁，他的姑姑， Magool ，是索马里最有名的歌手。 K'naan的祖父，哈吉穆罕默德，是一个诗人。 K'naan也是一个穆斯林。 后来随着内战的继续和索马里的局势继续恶化， K'naan的母亲，玛丽安穆罕默德，请求美国大使馆的出境签证。他们一家的签证获得批准，他们登上了过去商业航班离开索马里，移民加拿大了。 他的声音和风格已经比较阿姆，但他的题材有很大的不同！K'naan 的音乐是谈论索马里的局势，因为索马里是他的祖国，他在歌曲中呼吁停止暴力和流血,特别试图避免一般说唱陈词滥调的姿态。 k'naan的《Wavin Flag》（中文：《飘扬的旗帜》）的歌曲经过了多轮的评审于2010年南非世界杯抽签前夕最终被选为了南非世界杯的官方主题曲。
by Marisa Brown
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, just as the civil unrest that rocked the country was beginning, rapper K'Naan spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to the hip-hop records that his father, who had left Somalia earlier, sent to him from America. When K'Naan (whose name means "traveler" in Somali) was 13, he, his mother, and his two siblings were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in Harlem, where they stayed briefly before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where there was a large Somali community. As soon as K'Naan's English started improving he began rapping, and in tenth grade he dropped out of school and traveled around North America for two years, performing occasionally. Through his friendship with Sol Guy, part of promotion team Direct Current Media, K'Naan was able to perform at the United Nations' 50th anniversary concert in 1999, held in Geneva, where he used his platform to publicly criticize the United Nations' handling of the Somali crisis in the 1990s. One of the audience members, Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour, was so impressed by the young MC's performance and courage that he invited him to contribute to his 2001 album Building Bridges, a project through which K'Naan was able to tour the world. In 2002 K'Naan met Jarvis Church, part of the Track and Field Productions team that helped to propel Nelly Furtado to fame, a connection that eventually led to a record. The Dusty Foot Philosopher came out in Canada in 2005, and was followed with tour spots with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, as well as a performance at Live 8.