How Somalian Rapper K’naan Delivered on Coca-Cola’s $300 Million Bet

(Fast Company) In 1980, K’naan was a child in Mogadishu. Twenty years later, Coca-Cola will decide to build its biggest marketing campaign ever, a $300 million — plus global adventure involving 160 countries and the greatest sporting event in the world, around that skinny child from that godforsaken country. The deal will go so well that Coke, which Interbrand calls “the world’s No. 1 brand,” will completely redefine the way it works with content providers. And, of course, it will change K’naan’s life, although not in the ways you might expect. “It was an intense place, said K’naan. “ I now realize it’s healthy for a society to have some middles,” K’naan says, “but Somalis live only in the extremes. There’s extreme violence and extreme poetry, extreme hate and extreme beauty and heartache. There are no in-betweens. It’s good for art but not good for life.”

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