Do you still see the pain of vision holy/only scriptkeeper? K'naan – Blues for the Horn
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The gap between what he knows, and what the news tells him is growing, and so he’s confused.
He is also referring to the failed harvest, they can’t grow anything.
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Like conservatives who want to know everything about where someone is from before they will associate with them, K'naan wonders about how his homeland (Somalia) is doing. He needs to know whats going on before he will conform to the popular belief that the Horn of Africa is a violent evil place.
With all of us watching, we didn't love her anymore K'naan – My Old Home
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“Mother” is Somalia. In fact, he clarifies that in the first line of the hook “Peep my poem, Mother was my old home”. Considering the line preceding the last two bars is “It appears Orwell was right in ‘84”; K'naan is speaking of the warlords, her own children (and hence his brothers) who were destroying Somalia.
Now that the Warlords have taken over or “killed” Somalia (while everyone stood back and did nothing), no one loves the country anymore.
So I stopped going to school Talib Kweli – Friends & Family
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Kweli is saying that he was paying for an education that wasn’t teaching him anything so he saved his money and dropped out.
Kweli briefly studied experimental theater at New York University.
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ACCEPTED COMMENT: Lowkey is saying real wealth comes from whats within and thats what will leave your footprint on this Earth once you die, the amount of money you made will no longer matter.
But I figured do it big because the slum needs me K'naan (Ft. Kirk Hammett) – If Rap Gets Jealous (Troubadour)
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ACCEPTED COMMENT: A reference to the stereotype that most cabs won’t stop for anybody unless they’re white.
K'naan made it up despite coming from a slum in one of the most dangerous city on the planet.
Either you slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot Cam'ron – Sports Drugs Entertainment
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Cam'ron sampled this line from The Notorious B.I.G.’s song Things Done Changed.
This is a common phrase referring to the fact that young black kids usually have only two choices: sell drugs or be very, very good at sports.
I felt the giving getting me up off the wall K'naan – Take A Minute
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Whenever K'naan is angry (or tired of forgiving) he takes a minute to chill out so he doesn’t do something he might regret.
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ACCEPTED COMMENT: He survived the attack that killed his girlfriend and survived his troubled youth, a childhood in which he was forced to accept death as a part of life.
He also feels that he survived so that he could share his experiences with the world and that he was meant to write this music.
his actual girlfreind was murdered in the war in somalia. he dedicated a song to her by her name “Fatima”. they were both just 13 years old.