In July of 2001, I was renting an apartment in Dakar, Senegal, and rapidly running through my hard earned savings from DJ work and driving a taxicab in Chicago, my hometown. I was having a blast, taking long train rides to Bamako, Mali, learning French with the English majors at Cheikh Anta Diop University, exploring Dakar nightlife, collecting Senegalese Hip-Hop and Mbalax music on cassettes and CDs, visiting the beaches in Casamance, southern Senegal, but I was also going broke.