Dr. No's Ethiopium

by Oh No

Oh No has outdone his previous foray into ethnic instrumental hip-hop, 'Dr. No's Oxperiment' with this disk of Ethiopian-themed music. This disk has 36 tracks of funky, dirty hip-hop sampled exclusively from Ethiopian sources.

Ethiopian music seems to be undergoing a rebirth, especially the work of Mulatu Astatke, and this album helps fuel that interest in the original source material. The Ethiopia of the latter Selaisse era seems like a very funky place, which married a strange blend of American, European, African and Indian influences in its music.

It is not hard to imagine many of the tracks on this disk being used on hip-hop releases, similar to the way Mos Def recently started using the Oxperiment Turkish tracks. Oh No is a very talented producer, with a bright future.