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Dr. No’s Ethiopium is the fourth album by hip hop rapper and producer Oh No. The solely instrumental album was released by Stones Throw Records in 2009, and is described as an “album inspired-by and sampled-from rare 60s and 70s Ethiopian funk, jazz, folk, soul and psychedelic rock.” The track “The Funk” was used in a Mountain Dew commercial.
Listen to the samples here!
Musically trained in London and schooled in the club scene of mid-’60s New York, Mulatu Astatke stands as the exceptional musical innovator of the Ethiopian groove. Starting in 1969, he created the first bands independent of the military, which had previously dominated the country’s music scene. Having immersed himself in Caribbean music, funk, jazz and Latin grooves during his lengthy stint abroad, Mulatu returned to his native land to give rise to a brand new sound.