Selda Bağcan is a folk hero in Turkey. Her rock ballads combine a psychedelic sound with a political message that has resonated with young Turkish people since the 1970s. She became even more of an icon when the government censored her music and even briefly imprisoned her in the 1980s. Eventually, her soulful voice and catchy guitar riffs made it into music by Mos Def and Dr. Dre—though Bağcan says she never saw a dime from the samples. Whether or not the American artists were aware of her rebel politics, or simply loved her sound, is unclear.
