CD reviews: K'naan; John Nemeth

K'naan, "Troubadour" (A&M Octone)

"Somalia" and "America" arrive as adjacent tracks on the second album by rapper K'naan. And that sequencing feels pointed and insistent, like the songs themselves.

K'naan, born Kanaan Warsame, left Somalia with his mother in 1991, fleeing the brutality of civil war. Finding refuge first in New York, briefly in Minneapolis and then in Toronto, where he still lives, he devised a musical persona indebted to alternative hip-hop and to the legacies of Fela Kuti and Bob Marley. Parts of "Troubadour" were recorded at Marley's Tuff Gong studios in Jamaica at the invitation of Damian Marley, who sings on "I Come Prepared," the album's liveliest track.

There's a pragmatic thrust behind K'naan's endless invocations of conflict. "I wasn't ever looking for street cred/But these streets bred me to be street sav," he raps on the opening "T.I.A." (for "This Is Africa"). What he's exercising is a personal advantage, in hip-hop terms: firsthand experience with mortal violence, coupled with a survivor's luck and cunning.

These boasts manage not to seem overwrought, mainly because K'naan is a lithe and nimble rapper. His cadence can suggest a better-known comrade such as Mos Def (who raps a sluggish verse on "America"). And the music helps: Working with a handful of producers, K'naan sets his verses against samples of vintage African music, with an emphasis on Ethiopian jazz artists such as Getatchew Mekurya and Mulatu Astatke.

Those elements ring so true for K'naan that it feels like a distraction when he turns to famous guests such as Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (on "If Rap Gets Jealous") and Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine (on "Bang Bang"). But then it's obvious that this rapper has designs beyond the strictly diplomatic.

NATE CHINEN, NEW YORK TIMES

Classic soul and R&B styles have been revitalized in recent years by a cadre of relatively young artists such as James Hunter, Eli (Paperboy) Reed and Sharon Jones. You can include Nemeth, 31, on any list of the best of them.

"Love Me Tonight," the second national release by the San Francisco Bay Area singer/harmonica player, grabs you from the start with the relentlessly propulsive title song, one of 10 originals. The CD then showcases the rich tone and versatility of his vocals, from the supple, sweet soul of "Fuel for Your Fire," which edges up into falsetto, down to the grit and growl of the accusatory "Where You Been." Veteran guitarist Elvin Bishop plays on two tracks, including the Idaho-reared singer's autobiographical "Country Boy."