Cameroonian artist Francis Bebey was instrumental in the introduction of makossa into popular culture.
Through his own music and his championing of artists like Manu Dibango, “makossa” gained notoriety via 70s and 80s world music culture. The reach of the sound and concept so groovy it eventually ended up on the lips of millions of unaware people chanting along to the end of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’“.
Last year, Born Bad Records released a fantastic compilation of Bebey’s less traditional, experimental “African Electronic Music 1975-1982″, which has yielded a pretty sick 12″ featuring gloriously left-field remixes of Bebey’s work by Daphni, Pilooski, Young Marco.
The limited run 12″ is pretty hard to snag but the good people at Born Bad have made a digital version available with a grip of additional remixes by Populette and Etienne Jaumet.
Bebey’s bold work is something you should check out if you haven’t and these bold re-works are a great point of entry for the curious.