Multiculti (album)

The album was produced by Nyolo, who also wrote and arranged the songs.[7][8] She sang in Eton, Arabic, French, Spanish, and English.[9] Many of the songs are about growing up in the Cameroonian forest; others were inspired by living near a school, in Paris .[6][8] It was Nyolo's intention to promote to a wide audience the bikutsi style of her homeland.[10] Multiculti was recorded with help from Nyolo's former bandmates in Zap Mama, as well as Afro-French studio musicians.[11]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Robert Christgau	[12]
Edmonton Journal	[13]
MusicHound World: The Essential Album Guide	[7]
The Sydney Morning Herald	[1]

JazzTimes called the album "suave and funk-lined, urbane and rootsy all at once," writing that "hybridizing is the operative process and philosophy on the album, including the title cut’s seductive Afro-Parisian-hip-hop feel."[14] The Los Angeles Times deemed it "a delightful collection of acoustic music surging with the body-bending bikutsi rhythms of Cameroon, topped by Nyolo's crisp, melodic vocal harmonies."[10] The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote: "Subtle yet rhythmic, her multilayered music boasts buoyant melodies, darting talking-drum accents and intricate call-and-response vocal exchanges."[15]

The Edmonton Journal stated: "Heavy with hand percussion, bass and click guitar lines, it's spritely, uptempo music with choppy rhythms, thicker and less obviously influenced by western pop than say, Angelique Kidjo, but entirely entrancing either way."[13] Rolling Stone praised the combination of "energized bikutsi dance rhythms with poetic storytelling."[16] The Times noted that Nyolo "creates a rich African tapestry drawing on tribal chants and ambient sounds."[17]