A triple threat, that's what local hip-hop artist Wayne Carrasco is... a bona fide triple threat. Or a triple treat maybe. He is on his way to being a quadruple. His cornerstones are break-dancing, graffiti, teaching and MCing. He taught me a lot in a chat I had with the young star recently.

He came to my attention through a Twitter search on Oshawa. His tweet to Kardinal came up. My curiosity was aroused. I followed the links and came to a video of Wayne performing in front of 20,000 at CTV's SummerRush, break-dancing in such a fluid even free style. He flowed. I loved it. The crowd loved it. Others love it. He's booked for Caribana and Oshawa's International Festival. He also appears in the Oshawa Is Awesome video created by photographer Wes Evans. I think Wayne can dance. He knows he can. But it took a push from his pals to get him up.

You see, he'd been doing it all behind closed doors, studying, admiring, learning from the late Michael Jackson in particular. No one knew. One day for a laugh kats at school called him out hoping to embarrass him at the school dance. They threw down. He picked up and took off. He can dance. They were gobsmacked. Now he's a choreographer up at UOIT.

But hip hop is more than that. Its a philosophy. So he DJs at RIOT Radio broadcasting the word. He spins and mashes. He makes his own tracks, creates instead of complains. If it ain't there he puts it there. He's a DIY contractor, an architect of consciousness, a preacher of personal power. So You Think You Can't Do It. Yes You Can.

He's an artist. He paints and sprays. He's a designer of clothing. He'll make it just for you at his booth in Canada's Wonderland. Wonderful.

Wayne Carrasco of Oshawa is one taking chances, making chances, chancing and dancing his way through, up and over this legless old town.

Troubadour

K'naan

Universal

There is a picture making the rounds on the interwebs. It's of a couple of guys from an African collection agency, if you want to call it that. While some may employ rotweilers or dobermans as coercion, these guys have hyenas and baboons on a leash with them.

Essentially, that's the gist of Somalian rapper K'naan's message. All the gangsta dawgs in N. America are just pussycats compared to those menacing the streets of Mogadishu and other African cities. Ice T, Ice Cube and Vanilla Ice never dealt with real hardass goons.

But K'naan, now residing in Toronto, doesn't want to get all Chuck Norris on folks... he wants to use his street cred to pass on a message of peace and he uses his deep arsenal of sounds and friends to do so.

T.I.A samples Simmer Down from Bob Marley. I Come Prepared is dance hall. Fire In Freetown is funky Bruce Cockburn. Bang Bang is disco, If Rap Gets Jealous builds on an anthemic metal riff, America walks like an Egyptian, 15 Minutes Away moves on up. Fatima is an arm-waving crowd sing-a-long, as is People Like Me: "Heaven is there a chance you could come down and open doors to hurtin' people like me."

The disc is offered up with a healthy helping of humility, On Take A Minute: "Any man who knows a thing knows he knows not damn damn thing at all."

It's the same territory that K-Os has been exploring, pushing what is considered hip hop into new directions. It's a difficult tack but now K-Os has company. K'naan has delivered a record that straddles the pop and rap world with a dusty foot planted firmly on each side.

William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at wmacg@yahoo.com.