It's to Give!

Some K'naan In Your Tuesday Morning Coffee

Take A Minute

{Chorus}:

And any man who knows a thing knows, he knows not a damn, damn thing at all,

And everytime I felt the hurt and I felt the givin' gettin' me up off the wall,

I'm just gonna take a minute and let it ride,

I'm just gonna take a minute and let it breeze,

I'm just gonna take a minute and let it ride,

I'm just gonna take a minute and let it breeze,

How did Mandela get the will to surpass the everyday,

When injustice had him caged and trapped in every way,

How did Ghandi ever withstand the hunger strikes and all,

Didn't do it to gain power or money if I recall,

It's to give; I guess I'll pass it on,

Mother thinks it'll lift the stress of babylon,

Mother knows, my mother she suffered blows,

I don't know how we survived such violent episodes,

I was so worried, and hurt to see you bleed,

But as soon as you came out the hospital you gave me sweets,

Yeah, they try to take you from me,

But you still only gave 'em some prayers and sympathy,

Dear mama, you helped me write this, by showing me to give is priceless.

{Chorus}

All I can say is the worst is over now,

We can serve the hard times, divorce is over now,

They try to keep us out, but they doors is open now,

My nigga Akon is gettin awards for covers now,

This is K'NAAN, and still reppin' the IS (?)

Comin' out of Mogadishu and still draped in the mess,

And no matter how we strong, homie,

It ain't easy comin out of where we from, homie.

And that's the reason why, I could never play for me,

Tell 'em the truth, is what my dead homies told me,

Oh yeah, I take inspiration from the most heinous of situations,

Creating medication out my own tribulations.

Dear Africa, you helped me write this, by showing me to give is priceless.

{Chorus}

Nothing is perfect man, that's what the world is,

All I know is,

I'm enjoying today.

You know, 'cause it isn't everybody that you get to give.

{Chorus}

An interesting previous interview with the artist can be found here, and we post some of that below:

DJ Booth: We’ve got you on the phone for a reason: we want to find out more about you and what this album has to offer, but I want to dig a little deeper first. Somalia, the country that you are from, is synonymous with strife and extreme poverty. What are your immediate thoughts when you hear Americans complaining about the current economic climate of the country, knowing what you know about yours?

K’naan: It’s kind of a blessing and a curse for people, when these sort of things happen. Truly, I can appreciate the difficulty that these kinds of things cause – no one wants to have these sort of issues at their front door – but America has always been under kind of a false sense of security, and because of the majesty of how industrialization built up this nation, you have this sense of, “Well, nothing can really go wrong here.” I think that is not truly human. That kind of thing takes the humanity away from people. People need to know that there are risks, people need to feel the pressure of things, people need to know that things can fall apart, and that is when we create the best of ourselves, when we redefine our humanity and our art and our perspectives. I think it’s a good perspective shift.