SoundTreks: Canada's Worldly Outlook, Part One

This week, we're going to focus on what seems to be a preponderance of Canadian hip-hop and dance music artists with globe-trotting ears (yes, that's right, ears that globe-trot). The most prominent case in point right now is perhaps K'naan, the fiercely poetic and political Somali-Canadian emcee who you may have heard a thing or two about since the Internets have been buzzing about both his debut, The Dusty Foot Philosopher, and recently released follow-up, Troubadour, for quite some time.

Here's what Rhapsody's world editor Sarah Bardeen had to say about this year's Troubadour:

This Somali-Canadian rapper starts off his sophomore release sounding like he thinks he's got something to prove, but by the end we're the ones being schooled. He still stumbles with the occasional wack rhyme and bizarre collaboration (Maroon 5's Adam Levine?), but when K'naan is on, he ranks as a political poet of the first order. And his musical skills extend far beyond hip-hop: He flows over Ethiopian jazz, sings in Somali (while Mos Def raps, no less), even duets with Kirk Hammett's guitar. The panoramic political perspective and bursts of genuine wisdom give these delightful songs teeth.--Sarah Bardeen

One of the qualities that makes K'naan's sound so fresh and fascinating is the incredible range of musical material he incorporates and the almost filmic treatment he gives it.

Another similarly auteur-minded artist is Montreal-based emcee Socalled. He weaves together hip-hop lyricism, bits and pieces of klezmer and jazz, samples from Yiddish theater recordings and just a bit of campy shtick into tracks that really function more like mini-movies with evocative aesthetic narratives that just suck you in. The campy premises help, of course: his 2006 debut set the Passover seder to a hip-hop beat, while he and violinist Sophie Solomon reworked the wedding ceremony on 2003's HipHopKhasene. On his 2007 album Ghettoblaster, Socalled turned down the shtick a bit and paid a slightly more earnest tribute to his influences (but held on to the eccentric juxtapositions and vintage weirdness).

Taking one step just slightly out of the hip-hop realm for a minute, let's take a listen to another of our favorite globally minded Canuck artists, Mercan Dede (aka Arkin Allen). This Turkish-Canadian producer and instrumentalist (he plays the ney flute and bendir, a frame drum) swirls together Turkish classical music, drum 'n' bass, ambient beats, bits of hip-hop and Sufi aesthetics into an electro-traditional sound that compels dancing, be it of the club or whirling Dervish variety. In fact, Sufism is so influential for Dede that he often incorporates images referencing it or dancers who evoke the Dervish ceremony into his performances and videos, like this one from his 2008 album 800.

This kind of panoramic aesthetic seems to run rampant in Canada: see also Kinnie Starr, K-Os and even Nelly Furtado's earlier, pre-glamification recordings, none of which are "world music" per se, but all of which share a kissing kinship with K'naan, Socalled and Mercan Dede.