Batakari

Ata Kak, the mysterious Ghanaian pop enigma, is pleased to announce the release of 'Batakari', his first new album in 30 years. Released November 7th via Awesome Tapes From Africa, his iconic album 'Obaa Sima' will also be reissued and is newly remastered for 2025.
 
Boasting one of music's most thrilling comebacks, Ata Kak's international breakthrough arrived late but triumphant, courtesy of the now-canonical album 'Obaa Sima,' originally released to a run of just 50 cassette tapes in 1994. Unearthed by US musicologist and Crate digger Brian Shimkovitz several years later, the album was reissued by Shimkovitz's label Awesome Tapes From Africa in 2015 to worldwide critical acclaim, making Ata Kak a bonafide star overnight. "When Brian reached out to me and told me he had found my album, I couldn't believe it. It felt like a dream. I had no idea the music was still out there, and to hear that people were enjoying it was such a humbling experience."
 
Born Yaw Atta-Owusu, the Kumasi native was raised on highlife – a blend of traditional Ghanaian cadences with Western staples like jazz and swing – but Ata Kak's evolution truly began in Canada where he lived in the early 1990s. There, he crafted a radical synthesis that veered between West African tradition and the electronic currents of the era, resulting in 'Obaa Sima,' which initially fell under the radar on release. And then he disappeared, disheartened that his music had failed to find an audience.
 
For decades, he became a ghost and the hunt for Ata Kak became one of music's great mysteries – unaware of the international recognition that debut collection of songs was gaining. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Shimkovitz found him in 2014, where Ata Kak had returned to Kumasi and was attempting to run a well-digging business. The equipment had failed, and the dream fizzled. He wrote music in private, unaware that his old cassette was becoming a global sensation.
 
To some, Ata Kak is an early architect of Twi rap. To others, a symbol of outsider artistry who independently crafted a genre-defying album and waited three decades for the world to catch up. Few can claim to have shaped a global underground sound unknowingly, only to witness its acclaim years later. "Music is like water. Once it flows out, it can go anywhere," he says. Now very much a mainstay on the international circuit having performed at Glastonbury, Le Guess Who?, Roskilde, and the Jazz Café, London among others, Ata Kak is set to return with 'Batakari,' his first new album since that cult-status record, recorded three decades ago.