There is no question that Hip Hop's influence has spread the world over. From the Bronx to Beirut, Kazakhstan to Cali, Hokkaido to Harare, Hip Hop is the new sound of a disaffected global youth culture. It was only a matter of time before someone released a quality compilation that showcased the diverse number of cultures that have taken Hip Hop and remixed it in their own style.

Heavily represented here is the African continent, which has perhaps the largest Hip Hop scene outside the US. There are excellent track selections from Senegal's Positive Black Soul and Daara J , Tanzania's X Plastaz , South Africa's Zombo , and Mali's Yéli Fuzzo. As well as strong tracks from African expat cultures like the UK based Nigerian group JJC& 419 Squad and their party anthem "Ewajo" and the Malian/French group 113, who invite Malian diva Oumou Sangaré to help them expose the negative stereotypes of their native Mali in the track "Voix Du Mali."

Global Hip Hop succeeds best when it showcases Hip Hop's influence on cultures that reside outside the main arteries of the African Diaspora. Starting off with Los Angeles's own Delinquent Habits , and their mariachi fueled Spanglish track "Return of the Tres" the album takes off on a whirlwind tour. Turkey gets an amazing track from the sensational group Sultan Tunç who bring traditional Turkish instrumentation into the studio on "Deliloy" a satirical piece about arranged marriages in small town Turkey. There are two excellent tracks from South America, El Cantante" by Chile,'s Sonido Acido , and the funky 1998 classic "Esse e Meu Pais" from Brazil's Câmbio Negro, which imagines a utopian Brazil where racial and social equality are the norm. Then offering a glimpse of one of the hottest emerging scenes in the UK, the Anglo-Asian group Sona Family let loose with their Hindustani influenced "Indian Style." Finally, there are excellent tracks from the Lebanese Clotaire K , who sings about the war torn heart of Beirut in "Beyrouth Ecoeuree"and Greece's female rapper Sadahzinia and her ode to the rejuvenating powers of spring.

In the end, despite being heavy on the African side of things, this is a successful beginning to showcasing the diversity of the Global Hip Hop scene. In part, because the beauty of all of these selections is that they don't try to be something they are not. They are honest and eschew mimicking the "bling" and much of the misogyny and violence that accompany the majority of exported American Hip Hop culture. Instead there seems to be a very clear theme of artists for whom Hip Hop is something of a tool to help them re-contextualize or remix their own cultures. It is something to be used to speak about their own realities and not those of others. More importantly, this collection succeeds because each track is a bangin good time. I look forward to Volume 2.

Contributed by: Ebenezer Bond for www.afropop.org