Soul Makossa

Soul Makossa was the B-side. In 1972 Cameroon was hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time, and Manu Dibango recorded a hymn for the national team, with words by the poet and musicologist S.M. Eno Belinga. On the flip he put a loose, funky piece sung mostly in Duala, built around a chanted play on the word makossa, the dance music he was known for. That same year the DJ David Mancuso found a copy in a West Indian record shop in Brooklyn and began playing it at his parties at The Loft. The response was so strong that the handful of copies in New York sold out fast. Frankie Crocker then played it heavily on WBLS, at the time the city's most popular Black radio station. The original was so hard to find that at least 23 groups rushed out cover versions. Atlantic Records licensed Dibango's recording from the French label Fiesta, and in 1973 it reached number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, charting at the same time as a cover by Afrique. Its chanted hook travelled furthest of all. Michael Jackson adapted it for Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' on Thriller, settling with Dibango at the time, and Rihanna used Jackson's version in Don't Stop the Music in 2007, which led Dibango to sue in Paris. It is described as the most sampled African song in history: not bad for a record that was meant to be the other side of a football anthem.