Best Place to Buy Ethnic Music That’s Not a Record Store: Afrikiko Hair and Fashion Boutique
Eric Futran
Best Place to Buy Ethnic Music That’s Not a Record Store
The Reader’s Choice: Afrikiko Hair & Fashion Boutique
Even before Chicago’s record stores started dropping like flies, the best places to buy contemporary international music—the stuff that Ethiopians, Thais, or Serbs actually listen to, as opposed what the world-music industry pushes—were usually the groceries, video shops, or import boutiques that serve the communities in question. You can buy Bollywood soundtracks at the video shops on Devon and J-pop at the Mitsuwa mall in Arlington Heights, for instance. When it comes to Ghanaian hiplife—the fusion of hip-hop and highlife—you’d be hard-pressed to find more than one or two titles at even the most exhaustive record store, but you can pick up most of what’s currently hot in Ghana at Afrikiko Hair & Fashion Boutique, a barbershop that devotes a section of one wall to recent CDs. Chances are one of the barbers will have to put down his clippers to ring up your purchase. 
4635 N. Broadway, 773-878-4360. —Peter Margasak
Our readers’ choice: Old Town School Music Store
4544 N. Lincoln, 773-751-3398, oldtownschool.org.
