Soul Makossa

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"Soul Makossa" is a 1972 single by Cameroonian makossa saxophonist Manu Dibango. It is often cited as one of the first disco records.[1] In 1972 David Mancuso found a copy in a Brooklyn West Indian record store and often played it at his Loft parties.[2] The response was so positive that the few copies of "Soul Makossa" in New York City were quickly bought up.[2] The song was subsequently played heavily by Frankie Crocker, who DJed at WBLS, then New York's most popular Black radio station.[2] Since the original was now unfindable, 23 or more groups quickly released cover versions to capitalize on the demand for the record.[2] Atlantic eventually licensed the song from the French record label Fiesta.[2] Their release of it peaked at #35 on the Billboard chart in 1973; in 1999 Dave Marsh wrote that it was "the only African record by an African" to crack the top 40.[3] At one point there were nine different versions of the song in the Billboard chart.[4] It became "a massive hit" internationally as well.[4]

"Soul Makossa" was originally recorded as a B-side for "Mouvement Ewondo," a song about Cameroon's association football team.[4]

It is probably best remembered for the chanted vocal refrain "Mama-se, mama-sa, mama-ma-ko-ssa", which was also used in Michael Jackson's 1983 "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (albeit in a different key with a not-so-monophonic melody) during the song's final bridge. Dibango's lawyers obtained compensation in an out-of-court settlement claiming Jackson had stolen the chorus from Dibango. It is also sampled in the hip hop song "Face Off" by artist Jay-Z on his album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 as well as the single "Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna. "Makossa" means "(I) dance" in Duala, a Cameroonian language.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The History of Rock Music - The Seventies
  2. ^ a b c d e Shapiro, Peter. Turn the Beat Around: the Secret History of Disco. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc., 2005., 35.
  3. ^ Marsh, Dave. "The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made". Da Capo Press, 1999., 548
  4. ^ a b c Broughton, Simon; Mark Ellingham (2000). World Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides, 441. 
  5. ^ TRANS Nr. 13: George Echu (Yaounde): Multilingualism as a Resource: the Lexical Appropriation of Cameroon Indigenous Languages by English and French