Growing up in Senegal, Pape Armand Boye was excited by American rock & roll music. In addition to being immersed in Senegalese tradition, he and his friends listened to and were influenced by ACDC, The Who, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath—the shredders and the leaders in weird, trippy rock music. But it was Jimmy Hendrix who became their hero as a black man, an American icon making rock music.
Hearing these sounds clicked immediately for Boye and his friends. They considered rock music to be faster blues music, which is African. They took the genre into a new space by incorporating their traditional instruments, which were the perfect accompaniment to psych rock’s experimental style. There is a ton of history behind each West African country’s adoption and adaptation of psych-rock that we highly suggest exploring.