K'naan focuses songwriting inside and out

• New album includes collaborations with Bono and Keith Richards
• Songs touch on social and emotional issues
• New U.S. tour begins Saturday at Voodoo Festival in New Orleans

AUSTIN -- Somalian-born songwriter K'naan has always put his heart into his music. Now he's interjecting more of his personal life.

The 34-year-old hip-hop artist gained global fame when his song Wavin' Flag (from 2009 album Troubadour) was chosen as Coca-Cola's anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament. Still, his compelling ripped-from-the-headlines life story threatened to trump his prodigious talents.

As war began to wage in Somalia in 1991, a teenage K'naan and his family escaped. "Luckily, we got on one of the last commercial flights to leave the country," says the poet and singer, who learned English from rap records.

He again touches on his origin story in the buoyant opening track, The Seed, from new album Country, God or the Girl. "You know my history," he announces. "I stand for victory."

But much of the album focuses inward on the here and now. K'naan, born Keinan Abdi Warsame, veered that way after some advice from a famous friend, Damon Albarn, singer for Blur and co-creator of virtual band Gorillaz. He warned K'naan not to let his personal tale overshadow his talents. "You are an artist first and foremost," he told K'naan. "I think you are good. They think you are good because (of your story)."

The breakup of his marriage three years ago gave him an emotional well to tap into. "It showed me what true vulnerability was, and so I thought I need to write music that is reflective of everything that is happening to me," he says.

Songs such as the intimate Hurt Me Tomorrow, the dance-floor-worthy Sound of My Breaking Heart and majestic Bulletproof Pride make up the heart of the new album."I had been in actual pain while writing some of this music rather than the reflection of pain," he told USA TODAY during a half-hour interview in March at South By Southwest festival in Austin. "I just remember the process being really problematic because sometimes I literally couldn't get myself to the studio."

In the end, he says, creating melodies out of melancholy was "like an airbag for the heart."

At SXSW, K'naan's versatility was on display at an unplugged and subdued singer/songwriter afternoon performance for a small private gathering, followed by a raucous late-night set on the iHeartRadio stage.

That carries over in the new album as he re-establishes his impressive rap skills on Waiting Is a Drug and applies Kanye-esque vocals to Is Anybody Out There, a duet with Nelly Furtado -- one of two songs, along with Better, that also appeared on More Beautiful Than Silence, a five-song EP released earlier this year.

K'naan is expanding his reach in other ways as well. He just released a children's book, When I Get Older: The Story Behind Wavin' Flag (Tundra, $17.95). And his new theater tour launches Saturday with a stop at Voodoo Festival in New Orleans.

Originally set for a spring release, the new album continued to evolve over the past few months. "The kind of albums I don't like are made by the artists while on tour, because what have you got to say about another city and another show?" he says, catching up on the phone recently. "Since life changes so often, the music has to change. I kind of wanted to keep updating the record as life happens."

Now living in New York, K'naan saw his career kick off when Youssou N'Dour discovered the young rapper during a 1999 performance for the United Nations.

His initial recording, 2005 album The Dusty Foot Philosopher, won a Juno Award for best rap recording in Canada. (His family moved to Toronto after immigrating to New York.) 2009's Troubadour trumped that with two Junos, for artist and songwriter of the year.

The respect he's earned from the global music community has resulted in some impressive collaborations among the new tracks. U2's Bono provides vocals for Bulletproof Pride, while Keith Richards co-wrote and played on the crunchy, catchy Sleep When We Die, a bonus track on the album's deluxe edition. Other collaborators include Nas (Nothing To Lose), will.i.am (Alone) and Foster the People's Mark Foster (On the Other Side).

Such collaborations reunite K'naan with childhood memories of when his creative family would gather and riff off of each other's artistic strengths (his aunt was a famous Somalian singer; his grandfather, a poet). "Everybody threw in ideas and nobody actually wanted credit for what they were doing," he says. "I do miss something I never had, which is 'What if I was a musician at home?' Sometimes, I try to re-create that."

Contributing: Korina Lopez