In 1994, the Ghanian artist Ata Kak was living in Toronto, playing drums in a band that covered songs from the Ghanian highlife genre. Inspired by the sounds of hip-hop and dance that he was hearing, Kak recorded Obaa Sima, an energetic and low-tech album of pan-genre party album. It was not what you might call a hit. Kak’s brother put out 50 cassette copies and sold three of them, and Kak eventually went back to Ghana. Years later, Awesome Tapes From Africa founder Brian Shimkovitz found a copy of Obaa Sima buying it from a vendor in Ghana. He fell in love, and an unsuspecting Kak became a global cult sensation.
