Democracy in Dakar is mindblowingly good. It’s not just a portrait of a country’s vibrant music scene - it’s the complicated story of how hiphop emerged as a political force in Senegal, and how that force has been both empowered and thwarted in recent elections. Ben Herson, the founder of Nomadic Wax and the director of the film, tells the complex story of the emergence of Senegalese hiphop and its political weight almost entirely through interviews, carefully edited into a tight narrative. Watching an MC like Didier Awadi of "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Black_Soul">Positive Black Soul toss off a freestyle rap about the limitations of the International Criminal Court is like waking up in an alternate reality where Dead Pres and Slum Village outsell Diddy and Kanye.

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