K’Naan Vs The Times

July 13, 2010 by  

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KNaaan

K’Naan may be the name behind the World Cup’s hottest tune but he’s not the happiest skinny-jeaned-man around and this is thanks to an article published by The Times yesterday “K’Naan is difficult”.

The article quotes unnamed sources who wave the flag to K’Naan being a diva who does not want to visit townships and is sick of South Africa.  The quoted insider says

“There were several times when he made it so hard for us to deal with him. He complains and whines about the things he has to do . He even said he would not go to Alexandra township because it was dangerous.”

Read the rest of the article HERE.

The interesting thing about this is that K’naan was contacted for comment on the allegations and his manager responded :

“K’Naan was also human first before he was a celebrity, and he was very happy taking hundreds of pictures all weekend. We can’t make everyone happy and that is evident because those few people who never got their chance to take a picture with him will be criticising him for that one incident. He has been working with this campaign for 18 months. He hasn’t seen his family in that time, he is tired and, yes, he did fall ill. To get this kind of criticism when he has worked so hard is unfair.”

As soon as the story was published, K’naan was hopping mad and turned to his Twitter account to set the record straight…

Knaan2

Knaan3

Mmmmh… the first question I asked myself was “Why didn’t K’Naan say all of this when he was first contacted for comment?” But then on reading his manager’s response in the Times’ article, it sounds like he’s only responding to the part about refusing to take pictures with his fans. Did he only find out about the rest of the allegations when he read the article? Mmmh… let’s see if he takes this further and whether he’ll get the apology he thinks he deserves.

For those who are curious, V Entertainment will be doing a follow up on the story tomorrow. uK’Naan akahambe manje, iWorld Cup iphelile, we won’t hold this against him, it’s okay, really.

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Comments

27 Comments on "K’Naan Vs The Times"

  1. XtraLargePtyLtd on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 1:15 am 

    Thank you very much K’naan for a beautiful song nyani but you can voetsek now! We were kind for far too long I can’t bare pretending one more! Its been more that a month now! Stop whining and go back home! I’m sure ur family n friends miss you #NoHate

  2. GA on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 1:15 am 

    lol i read two lines so far…its the first time i hear of the story…BUT…im not suprised. I could tell that there was something ingenuine about him in interviews…..ive just never trusted his person…..and i have never felt like he wa connected to the song (waving flag) and the SA WC spirit….

    heish…intuition….!!!!

    Now ill read.

  3. GA on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 1:18 am 

    And RE: menperc’s article on handling critism…its a bit tacky for a celebrity to respond to the media as he is responding in his tweets….a global celeb nogal…

    hai hai..still haveant read fully….azanke ka motshepa Knaan o….!

  4. Kiki on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 7:05 am 

    Tjo Xtralarge bathong! Heheh

  5. MaCMash on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 7:11 am 

    I agree, he can go now, the flags have been stashed away.

  6. Fezzy on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 7:16 am 

    UPhillp uhambile wena usaleleni? Go already!

  7. Makgotso on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:14 am 

    Farewell Knaan,you have overstayed your welcome yiko kuso uyazi uma usuvakashe isikhathi eside emzini womuntu baqale bacomplaine ngokuphela kwesinkwa speed. still love your song though

  8. Brown Shuga on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:38 am 

    LOL guys! Stop, poor guy!

    Tjo GA uthini? U always knew he wasn’t sincere heheheh

  9. mshefane on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:42 am 

    fello comrades..the president of jc, BS..the honourable judge judy, aka KIKI! and offcourse my sexy bubu @fezzy..i greet u in the name of phillipa..
    i’ve neva bin a fan of this takalan called K9..
    dont feel his vibe!!
    he can go now

  10. Brown Shuga on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:48 am 

    Helllo Msheffy!

  11. Fezzy on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 9:01 am 

    O..Hi Mshefy!

  12. Silvio on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 9:26 am 

    makayopaka lo “Canine”

  13. Miss H on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 9:40 am 

    Ow guys “xenophobic attacks” on Twitter. Let the man stay, and asiqali to hear of a difficulty artist. Kunini bakhona, Im sure even the ones from SA are just as bad if not worse.

  14. Bra Bizza on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 10:39 am 

    Xenophobia is a crime people!!!

  15. fruitcake on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 11:44 am 

    I dont see what is the big deal if K’naan does not want to go to Alex. It is his choice, epecially if he feels that his safety would be compromised. I wonder how many of The times employees have set foot ko Alex. We have abo Dylan, Tarryn and Simone here in Mzantsi who vows they will never set foot in Maponya mall let alone Alex, coz of security issues. But they are not judged. * In malema’s voice* You are all racist or Xenophobic.

    Se ka ya wena K’naan, if you want you can come wave your flag in my hood, I will be your personal body guard, not that you are going to need one.

  16. GA on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:11 pm 

    @sucre….i dont doubt his skill and sincerity in some of his causes…its just that this with his world cup gig, ive never felt like he was connected. Waving flag was not written for the world cup…it was selected and adapted and ryt there i felt the disconnect…then there was the interviews i watched of him…something ne e sa dule kamnandi….

    Otherwise…i hope my sentiments about him are wrong as well as The Times article

  17. Perzzz on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 8:41 pm 

    BS, I’m gonna have to defend K’Naan. I’ve interviewed the dude 3 times and have followed him doing charity work. I have NEVER seen that side of him. And I mean NEVER. I only used one interview which was published in SOUL but the others weren’t used. I think what might have happened (which happens a lot) was that his management and/or record company locally over-committed him to the bone, and the guy was just tired. It happens every time. One thing I specifically remember about him was how much he was looking forward to going to the townships. He’s from Somalia for crying out loud. And as far as taking pics is concerned, eish, abantu kumele babe strong. People get tired. Also, all the times I was with him (amongst hundreds of people – without the presence ye press and camera people), he was more than happy to take pics.

    But then again, maybe he has changed – angazi. Perhaps he was having a bad day. More importantly, abantu bane haba. They exaggerate, so this might be a bitter person who is bitter about sun’thin.

  18. SilentBloggar on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 9:09 pm 

    @Perezzz I agree with you, everyone has a bad day and not everyone will like you. If K’Naan is difficult so what. The journalist must have earned herself some cheap publicity, hope she uses it to buy some soap and take a bath.

  19. CrunkHun on Tue, 13th Jul 2010 10:44 pm 

    OMG @ SilentBlogger…Totally absolutely DEAD!Kwaaaaaaaaa! Vele she nids it! *hides*

  20. Lela on Wed, 14th Jul 2010 12:28 am 

    Lol,but this story is very cheap esp for a big paper like TT,this is so Sunday Sun, claiming shit about a person based on some unknown source and having it as a story,nxa! no wonder this paper is free!

  21. Sobza on Wed, 14th Jul 2010 11:21 am 

    This is unfair on K’naan….I don’t blame him though Alex is smelly and ixakekile maan.

  22. Buhlebonga on Wed, 14th Jul 2010 3:15 pm 

    Poor K’Naan. he was nice to me in durban tho… oh well I guess you can’t make everyone happy…

  23. Bee10 on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 2:07 am 

    I love u and your song Knaan! *being a crazy groupie, waving my flag and blowing kisses*

  24. Strolicious on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 7:54 am 

    lol Sobza …i’ve neva been 2 Alex nami abamyeke shame.

  25. sanny.m on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 10:36 am 

    I thot waving flag was nice up until it became a daily bread @ sabc1 haisuka got fed up of the song and k’naan himself nxa..he must go now kwanele somalia or canada is waiting..I’m not hiding futhi!

  26. Bee on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 2:32 pm 

    I live in Sandton and I hardly go to Alex how much more for a person outside Jozi/Mzantsi.

  27. NthabiVDK on Thu, 15th Jul 2010 3:56 pm 

    Don’t really care about him and his flag as Phillip left long tym ago

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