Last month, a good friend got married in her native Eritrea. Though I wasn’t along for the party, the folks who were couldn’t stop talking about it. In fact, one of their highlights was a performance by Wedi Tukul, an Eritrean musician who is best known for being one of the most visible supporters of the Eritrean War of Independence from Ethiopia, and is so popular that he is known as the Bob Marley of Eritrea (no frat).

So Wedi Tukul performs at this wedding, in a small village outside of Asmara, the capitol of Eritrea. And he tears. it. down. To the ground. Everyone at the party was going nuts for him. Not too bad.

And of course, this performance leaves an imprint, and upon their return, the whole crew made sure we, the non-partakers, saw and heard Wedi Tukul. And they were right, the dude is great. He owns his songs like nothing. Just check out this jam:

So yeah, great music. So what could make it better? It just so happened that the homie has a homie in the Bay who’s been remixing Eritrean music for a couple years now, and sent a remix of Zeray back my way. Now that is what we call an unforseen win.

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Wedi Tukul – Zeray (Abraham remix)

Now, surely this story is reaching its climax, no? Well, sort of. It turns out the Bay Area remixster, aka the producer Abraham, did a full album refix of Jay Z’s “American Gangster” with all-Eritrean samples. And he wants you to have it. Titled “The Eritrean Gangster,” the album is exactly what you would hope for in such a concept-driven album. The lyrics, well we know them (hello all you roc boys out there), and Abraham’s production draws out the funk of his samples, and drops well-programmed drums over the top, leaving you with a happy final package.

Download: Abraham – “The Eritrean Gangster Mixtape”

Yes, this is a long post, and yes, there are many musics here for you. You’ll just have to enjoy it!