Bleep

Ata Kak has had a strange yet illustrious career, disappearing from memory until Brian Shimkowitz picked up a tape in Ghana and made his inaugural blog post in 2006, on a site dubbed Awesome Tapes From Africa which would enshrine Ata Kak’s legacy forevermore. Perhaps the most notorious example of hiplife to circulate throughout the West, Obaa Sima is an enduring and endlessly catchy album; the original tapes melted in the Ghanaian heat, but might as well have done from the ferocity of its expressive Twi raps and harmonies flying through glitzy hip house, finally restored to glory in this anniversary remaster. Brittle breakbeats, spectral synths, and playful “a-scooby dooby dooby” lyrics add mysteriously eclectic flavours to beats inflected with early hip hop charm and the nigh euphoric highlife electro funk of ‘Bome Nnwom’.