Why Addis Abeba
Ask anyone from the East African diaspora what music raised them, and 2Pac will be in the top three. Not because he sounded Ethiopian or Eritrean. Because he sounded like someone the world had counted out — and the East African immigrant experience knows that register better than most.
Addis Abeba — the city — is a city that keeps things. Coffee culture that traces back further than any coffee house in the world. Highland altitude that changes the way you breathe. A calendar that runs seven years behind the rest of the world, on purpose. A city that decided time works differently there, and kept its decision. That's the register I wanted to work in.
The production
I built the track around a slow, sustained bass — patient in a way most deep house isn't. There's a percussive figure that sits somewhere between what a producer in Brooklyn would program and what a taxi radio in Bole would play late at night. Not either. Both. That's the space I was trying to find.
The pads sit further back than usual. The kick is soft on purpose. I wanted the whole architecture to feel like a city breathing at altitude — thinner air, everything slightly slower, but nothing missing.
"Distance doesn't kill a voice. It's what carries it."
The altitude-slow bass needs real low end.
Phone speakers will flatten what makes Addis Abeba distinctive. If you want the patience and depth to land:
- JBL BassPro Hub — the powered sub I designed this against.
- Sony WH-CH720N — deep bass wireless over-ears for the late listen.
- Audio-Technica ATH-M20x — studio honesty for the details in the mid-range.
Full setup on my Gear page.
View the night drive gear →The geographic identity series
Addis Abeba joins Kral, Habibi, and Zaman in what's now a full geographic-identity quartet. Each track sits in a different city's register — Istanbul, the Mediterranean coast, Turkish diaspora time, and now the East African highlands. The whole quartet is a map, not of where I've been, but of where 2Pac still lives.
Play them in sequence and you can feel the catalog's real texture — it's not a Montréal producer's take on 2Pac. It's a global diaspora conversation, using deep house as its shared language.
Who this is for
- The Ethiopian kid in Washington DC driving back from an Amharic-language birthday party at 2 AM
- The Eritrean night driver in Stockholm on the way back from a friend's coffee ceremony
- The African diaspora member anywhere who knows gurbet in a language that doesn't have that word
- Anyone who understands that Pac's voice made it further than his passport ever did
// Copyright noticeThis is an independent tribute remix produced by Murat Koff. It is not affiliated with the official labels or estates of 2Pac. All original copyrights belong to their respective owners. If you're a copyright holder with concerns regarding this content, please contact via the YouTube channel — we will respond promptly and act in good faith.
