The Afrikan Hustle

Joe Mensah is a giant of West African music, and one of the artists who helped pioneer the modern highlife sound in the 1950s. He moved from Ghana to Nigeria in the 1960s and made his name playing in Lagos’ legendary Ambassador Hotel, where he perfected the sound that would become his trademark: slow afro-soul grooves, jazzy arrangements, honeyed highlife vocals, and signature squelchy moog workouts. His 1977 album The Afrikan Hustle is his most famous and contains two of his biggest hits, the uplifting “Bonsue,” with its polyrhythms and futuristic moog, and “Rokpokpo.” A real gem here is “Ye Gbawa oo Baba,” an ode to Nigeria and his Nigerian fans in the Yoruba language, in which Mensah manages to blend rich percussive textures, leisurely guitars and horns with a nimble, unruly synth. Some wicked breaks across the four tracks too.