Daara J

African hip-hop trio Daara J's third album, 2004's Boomerang, helped finally put Senegal on the hip-hop map, and with good reason: the group's spitfire Wolof raps and eclectic production (ranging from Cuban son to contemporary R&B) will grab you no matter what language you speak. (It helps that these guys also forego the misogyny and shallow party-raps for heftier lyrical fare.) While the group's debt to American rap and R&B is unmistakable, traditional African folk influences and surprises raise this above the mainstream.