Zap Mama - Ancestry in Progress
(Luaka Bop Records / V2 Music )

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Say you're a globally respected artist. You've united musical cultures through the wonders of voice, and pushed the boundaries of the art of a cappella. What's next? You have a passion for hip hop and want to explore and stretch its boundaries as well.

If you're Marie Daulne, the Zaire-born visionary behind Zap Mama, you abandon the safety of your Belgian home and relocate to the land of modern soul, the US. Even better, you land in Philadelphia, in the Soulquarian hothouse of The Roots, and their extended community. Then, you do what comes naturally: bring your unique sensibilities to their smooth groove. Together, you push culture forward without ever forgetting where it began, and you call it Ancestry in Progress.

Zap Mama's fifth album is an experience in global soul. With help from soul superstar Erykah Badu (on "Bandy Bandy"), hip-hop royalty Common and Talib Kweli (on "Yelling Away"), and other members of the Roots' Philly massive, Ancestry in Progress further establishes Zap Mama as a main fuse in the continuing musical re-unification of the pan-African diaspora.

But Progress isn't just Zap Mama's American move on urban music. Created mostly in the US with Philly's own, Anthony Tidd, tracks such as "Show Me the Way" and "Ca Varie Varie" strut with the openhearted Afro-funk common to the clubs of racially diverse Western European capitals. Belgium-born producer, Phillippe Allaert, put his production magic on tracks such as "Sweet Melody" and "Yaku." Marie's vocals-only duet with Roots human beat-box, Scratch, on "Wadidyusay?" takes Zap Mama's a cappella futurism to a whole new level of musical globalization.

Marie further explains the philosophy of Progress, "I'm talking about all the humans who made this world better, their philosophy and their fight. I want my work to show respect for those people. Because I know that tomorrow we're going to be ancestors, and that is the kind of ancestor I want to represent."

Of course, the result of Zap Mama's collaboration with Ahmir "?uestLove" Thompson, Anthony Tidd, Rich Nichols and the rest of the Philly Soulquarians has stretched beyond Ancestry in Progress. Daulne also appeared on albums by Common (Electric Circus), King Britt (Oba Funke) and Erykah Badu (WorldWide Underground). She also jammed in the studio with the likes of Bilal and Nelly Furtado, and joined Erykah Badu's band, for the singer's 2003 national tour.

Yet it is on Ancestry that Zap Mama's fruitful inquiry into modern soul music can be best experienced. Nearly all the album's songs were co-produced and written by Daulne after she arrived in the US, and found influence in her American experience. "The American beat is a revolution all over the world," she says. "Everybody listens to it and everybody follows it. But the beat of the United States was inspired by the beat coming from Africa. Not just its structure, but the sound of it. This is the source of modern sounds, the history of the beat, starting from little pieces of wood banging against one another, and arriving on the big sound-systems today. It's genius. So I wanted to create an album about the evolution of old ancestral beats, how they traveled from Africa, mixing with European and Asian sounds, and were brought to America."

This is Ancestry in Progress.
This is World Music Re-Defined.