Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Messengers

by J. Period and K'Naan

K'Naan has always emphasized in his
art his role as an agent of change. In this set of three mixtapes created with J. Period, he has engaged musically with his idols, crossing national and genre borders to bring us an interesting blend of mash-ups, tributes, new work, and his thoughts.

The first mixtape features the music of Fela Kuti, the second Bob Marley, and the third, Bob Dylan. While these three icons are known for vastly different things, K'Naan speaks to their commonality, and continued relevance to us today.

J. Period blends K'Naan's voice and lyrics into the original recordings, and uses archival recordings of the artists' interviews or conversations. The effect is one where it becomes hard to remember what the original songs sounded like in places.

Guests featured throughout the project include Kardinal Offishall, M1, Zumbi, and more. This is a project that I would gladly pay money for, but has been released for free at J. Period's website.

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