The shade of someone else's grace

Driving through the townships near Thokoza, South Africa on a chilly June day, Nate took it upon himself to introduce us to all sorts of out-of-the-mainstream hip hop.  One of the best, in my opinion, was this collection of remixes from K'NAAN and producer J.Period.  They teamed up to create a series of three releases, dubbed "The Messengers," each incorporating and paying tribute to a transformational artist.

My favorite is the third - Bob Dylan (the other two being Bob Marley and Fela Kuti, an influential Nigerian activist musician).  It is pretty cool to hear Dylan's very recognizable guitar riffs transformed into beats with a modern, urban flair and to have his famous lyrics interspersed with K'NAAN's rapping.  Alongside some of the hip hop remixes are brief, crisply assembled introductory pieces and biographical sketches, providing interesting historical and social context to the music.

You can download all three of the releases, for free, from J.Period's website.  Grooveshark has them as well, although Youtube only seemed to have a few (not including my favorite, "Don't Think Twice").  In searching for this music online this morning, I came across this post from NPR's All Songs Considered Blog.  There are several sound clips of an interview with K'NAAN, as he discusses the motivation behind the project and the humble approach he takes to paying tribute to these icons.

"There is never a way you can improve an original, becuase you don't know what it was meant to be," he says.  If not to improve upon it, then what was your goal? wonders the interviewer.  K'NAAN answers simply: "To be in the shade of someone else's grace....as a narrator and [to] explain how they connect" to each other and to our lives in the present.