Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan, born Keinan Abdi Warsame, has been accused of s*xually assaulting a 29-year-old woman at a hotel in Quebec City in 2010. The incident happened during the Festival d’été de Quebec, and the victim filed the complaint in May 2022.
The chargesheet was filed on September 26, 2024. The complaint was initially filed with Montreal police but was later transferred to Quebec City authorities.
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According to a report by the Toronto Star from September 26, 2024, the court documents stated that the alleged assault occurred between July 16 and July 17, 2010. The case was presented in court on Thursday, but the K’naan, currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, did not appear.
The upcoming court appearance is set for next year, with a preliminary inquiry to be held in April 2025. The alleged victim, whose identity remains confidential, was 29 years old at the time of the reported assault.
K’naan is widely recognized for his hit single Wavin' Flag, which became an anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He first released the song on his 2009 album Troubadour, featuring collaborations with Mos Def, Chubb Rock, and Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na.
Just days before being charged with s*xual assault, K’naan received the SOCAN Cultural Impact Award for Wavin' Flag’s global significance. Earlier this year, he won the Grammy's Best Song for Social Change Award for his 2023 track Refugee.
Originally from Somalia, the rapper relocated to the US with his family at the age of 13. He first lived in New York before settling in Toronto, Canada, where he spent his teenage years.
K’naan is a four-time Juno Award winner
In 2010, K'naan and other notable Canadian artists re-recorded Wavin' Flag to support victims of that year’s Haiti earthquake. A different version also served as the anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Reportedly, the four-time Juno Award winner took a break from music in 2012 to focus on other ventures.
During a conversation with the Me Movement in 2011, it was revealed that K’naan was arrested 15 times after he joined a gang when he moved into a neighborhood called Little Mogadishu. This happened before he became famous. He said:
“Yeah, just me really but me without a voice. Imagine my music and everything that you heard in those songs bottled up in one person with no way to express those things you know what kind of person would that be so I really was lucky that music kind of came to my rescue.”
He continued:
“Also the neighbourhood that I came up in Toronto is known as this Dixons we will just call this neighbourhood and there is just a bunch of some other kids that lived there when I was growing up and unfortunately the Canadian system didn’t understand some of these and nor did they understand our love for socializing.”
In September 2024, K’naan made his directorial debut with the film Mother Mother, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 1999, his critique of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reportedly caught the attention of Senegalese musician Youssou N'Dour, who invited him to collaborate on an album, jump-starting his music career.
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