K'naan, a Somalian-born rapper, is considering suing presdential candidate Mitt Romney, who decided to use K'naan's song "Waving Flag," as his victory anthem.
K'naan spoke to XXL about it, saying that his phone and e-mail were blowing up when people found out Romney's campaign utilized his victory song. “My manager called me on the phone and was like, ‘Hey, Mitt Romney has just used your song and people are hitting me up like crazy,’” he said. “Then I checked my e-mails and Twitter and, sure enough, it’s blowing up with crazy outrage.”
K'naan is a socially and politically-conscious rapper, who has views very different from those of Romney. He tweeted the Presidential candidate to voice his dissaproval, "Yo @mittromney I am K’naan Warsame and I do not endorse this message.”
K'naan says that they are definitely going to reach out to Romney's campaign to ask that his song not be used, but he may also take legal action.
“I might even go further, because I don’t like what that does to me as an artist,” he told XXL. “I don’t really like the association of a song that I created, and such a personal song, being used in that context; [it] changes the way people feel about the song. It’s damaging to me.”
If he won the suit, he says he would happily give all the money to President Obama's campaign, “If we’re successful in the suit, I would happily contribute the damages to the Obama campaign.”
"Waving Flag" became a big success for K'naan in 2010, and K'naan wonders how it fits in with Romney's campaign at all: “Everybody thinks that every song that has some moving parts and good hooks is a good idea for every cause and every function, but mine couldn’t be any further than what Mitt Romney stands for,” he said. “It’s a bizarre thing. The dude is against immigration. The dude just made a statement saying that he’s not concerned for the very poor, and [he] essentially doesn’t have a foreign policy at all. And he’s using a Muslim rapper from Somalia who’s an immigrant from Canada’s song? It’s a bit hypocritical.”
