In my search for great consious Hip Hop artists to collaborate with on my new film project, Beat the World, I have had the pleasure of meeting, hearing and spending some time with K’Naan (at the Record Plant and Wiltern Theatre in LA, at the Harmony Festival in Sonoma and at his recent concert in Toronto).  K’Naan comes from the war torn country of Somalia in a region sometimes referred to as “the river of blood”.  He is son of a great poet (his father) and amazing Somalian singer (his mother). Despite his youth in years, the depth of his life experience and the insights he has gathered from surviving and rising above shine through in his music, his lyrics and his person with both power and poinancy. Even with his commitment to the message, I expect K’Naan will be a force to reckon with in the commercial world of Hip Hop as well, helping to re-confirm that there is a growing global audience for consious Hip Hop.

To give props to both K’Naan the the mix tape king JPeriod, and to share a very cool project they developed together, I wanted to pass along the following info and free music download.  Thanks to K’Naan & JPeriod for carrying the torch. Enjoy the music!

Three weeks after introducing the first of their groundbreaking Messengers tributes, J.Period & K’NAAN presented their final offering in the remix series:The Messengers (Deluxe Edition), a long-play version of their epic trilogy, including previously unreleased bonus tracks and selected 12” singles.  Taking hip hop fans on an unprecedented journey into the legacies of Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and Bob Dylan, J.Period & K’NAAN’s The Messengers has racked up over 85,000 downloads/plays in only a few short weeks online, making this mixtape a bonafide phenomenon, as well.  Remixing and re-imagining the classic work of these legendary artists, The Messengersis already being called “one of the year’s best albums or mixtapes” by top hip hop journalists, including HipHopDX.com.  The Messengers (Deluxe Edition) is available for free at http://www.jperiod.com/upload/knaan/jperiod-knaan-0922.zip

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