TORONTO — Among the 40 albums that have been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize since it was created in 2006, only four could be categorized as hip hop.

K'naan, who can claim two of those nominations, says it's the hip-hop community's responsibility to change that.

"We have a lot of artists in Canada who are hip-hop artists and so on, but not a lot of the young people out there who are making music are actually putting out consistent work, you know what I mean?" K'naan told The Canadian Press on the telephone from Chicago.

K'naan has been shortlisted this year for "Troubadour," his second studio album, and was shortlisted in 2006 for his debut, "The Dusty Foot Philosopher."

Over the years, Shad and Cadence Weapon have also been shortlisted for the $20,000 prize, which is awarded based only on artistic merit. No hip-hop artist has ever won and the prize has been criticized in some quarters for being too rock-centric.

The 31-year-old K'naan, who's from Toronto by way of Somalia, said the problem is two-fold: few Canadian hip-hop artists are putting out consistently high-quality work, and few Canuck rap artists are making their work visible enough.

"I guess the truth about art is that it's also production, and the thing has to be seen," he said.

"So we have to be kind of honest ... I know that there's a k-os album out, I know that there's a Classified album out, you know what I mean, but all the other guys we're talking about that have got their little studios in Toronto -- it's nice and all, but where's the music?"

K'naan does acknowledge that the playing ground for hip-hop music is occasionally uneven.

"I do think there's a little bit of an inconsistency with just how the music industry in general works with regards to urban music, especially urban music from Canada," he said.

Still, he ultimately puts the onus on Canadian hip-hop artists to make visible work worthy of winning awards.

"I think we do have to produce more great art out of Canada that we would say might be hip hop," he said. "And that's not nobody else's responsibility but the artists'."

This year's Polaris winner will be announced at a gala on Sept. 21 at the Concert Hall in the Masonic Temple in Toronto.

Other nominees include Joel Plaskett, Patrick Watson, Metric and Chad VanGaalen.