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A&M/Octone An African rapper who has seen enough rough stuff to make 50 Cent look like Hannah Montana Rappers go on and on about their hard-knock hometowns, but when K”NAAN says his “city code is lock and load,” he’s repping a hood so tough it requires U.N. military intervention.  The 30-year-old MC fled civil-war-ravage Somalia in his teens (for New York, then Toronto), and he somberly picks through the emotional wreckage on his first U.S. release.  But he also comes armed with a Bob Marley-like knack for turning strife into sweetness, cheery but rarely dinky singing and rapping, and a self-deprecating wit that revels in his outsiderness: He apologizes for the mild knit-cap-and-rap-rock beats by joking that buying Kanye West tracks would’ve left him with nothing to send the folks back home.  And whether he’s lamenting immigration hassles or imagining himself a depressed American kid fighting in Iraq this Muslim fan of Biggie and Bruce Lee has a common touch.  He’s a universal soldier, not an exotic novelty. Jon Dolan DOWNLOAD“Take a Minute,” “If Rap Gets Jealous”