K’naan Promises New Music “Real Soon”!

K’naan’s fans have spent the last 18 months waiting for news of a new album. After previewing the “Ha Ha” song in November 2017 and teasing several songs in a series of “making the album” videos in winter a year ago, it had seemed that his new album was imminent. But 2018 came and went with no new tunes, K’naan only affirming in November that he was still working on it. Today, K’naan’s update was a bit more promising: He assures that new music is coming “real soon.”

It started when K’naan shared a video on Instagram responding to the recent death of rapper Nipsey. A fan in the comments asked for more music from K’naan, to which he responded, “There’ll be new stuff soon – promise.” See a screenshot of his comment below:

K'naan instagram april 2019 new stuff real soon

On Twitter, K’naan again responded to a fan asking about new music, this time saying, “Watch for it real soon.”

While we don’t yet have a timeframe, “real soon” is certainly promising. Does this mean we’ll get new music this year? Summer or fall, perhaps? Here’s hoping 2019 is our year!

Between November 2017 and January 2018, K’naan wrote and recorded with Kyan and Krucial Keys in Los Angeles. We’ve heard previews of several songs, including “Hide And Seek” and “Come To America,” songs we’ll tentatively call “Bad At Love,” “Ha Ha,” and “Those Were The Days,” and some unnamed songs.

The last full song we heard from K’naan was “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done,)” part of The Hamilton Mixtape. In June 2017, the song also got a music video.

Latest K’naan News

It’s been a few years since we heard new music from K’naan. His last album, Country, God, Or The Girl, came out nearly seven years ago. It launched singles like “Is Anybody Out There?” (featuring Nelly Furtado) and “Hurt Me Tomorrow.”

Since then, K’naan spent much of his recent time developing a TV series called Mogadishu, Minnesota. Himself an immigrant from Mogadishu, Somalia, K’naan wrote, directed, and executive produced this show with the intention of highlighting the immigrant experience of Somalis in America. The HBO series was ordered to pilot in summer 2016, with filming occurring in early 2017. However, the show was met with scrutiny, with some Somali Americans concerned about how they’d be portrayed in the show.

Unfortunately, in September 2017, it was announced that HBO will not be moving forward with Mogadishu, Minnesota. In a statement, HBO said: “We value the relationship we’ve built working with the talented K’Naan Warsame and hope to have a chance to work with him in the future.” At this point, it’s unclear if Mogadishu, Minnesota would be able to move to another network, but for now, it seems we won’t get to see it.

Back to Music

In addition to exploring the television world, K’naan has also been working on new music. In March 2017 he was in the studio with Jim Jonsin. That April, K’naan was teasing new songs that aren’t out yet, confirming that he’s writing “a little somethin somethin” that way may get to hear soon. The new songs may include his sequel to “Until The Lion Learns To Speak,” a track from his first album.

By now, we’re getting really excited – if a bit impatient! – to hear the new K’naan album. With several song clips from the making of videos – plus the preview of “Ha Ha” from last November – we have a lot to look forward to. This could be K’naan’s best album yet!

With any luck, we should get some new K’naan music and news of an album “real soon” – hopefully this year, at least! It should be out sometime in 2019. Keep checking back here for all the latest K’naan music news.

Hidden Jams

Hidden Jams is a music blog for super fans. Check out our new merch store for all of us who love music. Click "Hidden Jams" above or the image on the left to see our store.

Hidden Jams has 1450 posts and counting. See all posts by Hidden Jams

Sound Off!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.