53 Quotes by K'naan

I am one of those people that's never been really cynical about life, you know.

I'm writing from a place of - a center of authenticity, somewhere that only I know how to write from.

I think it's a mistake to work on success in career. I've worked on my passions obsessively. How can I say what I want to say more precisely than the last time I said it? Success is such an elusive concept. When you work for it, I think you get it in a way you might regret it.

It was interesting to find how dominating American vision is all over the world. I think there's something to be said about the world's mindset and its economics and all of that, and I think it affects the way we see ourselves and it affects music.

It was not my dream to be an artist. How could it have been? I thought, artist, much like a leader, was something you either were or weren't. Never something you set out to be.

To reach your goal authentically is probably, in the end, going to mean much more to you than having reached it in a false way.

Hip-hop in Africa has been very often a duplication of an American experience, but in a context that's totally alien to it.

Somalis really are very musically sophisticated, and they're about their own thing.

I know that often times a lot of people who work in music, whether they be labels and so on or even artists, want personal recognition. We want to be recognized for something, for what we did. I'd rather my song be recognized for what it's doing and that's important. It's not so important how many people know me.