most fans of the blues believe it was born in the mississippi delta shortly before 1900. they are definitively wrong. the blues had its roots in other forms of older black music that are traced to the music of west africa. in that sense, mali music constitutes the dna of the blues and the griots can be identified as the direct ancestors of the rural bluesmen. baba sissoko is from mali and he is the last undisputed griot alive.