Fela Kuti

I’ve been meaning to attempt a portrait of Fela for a while. Since I finally got to it, I’ll also attempt a really brief bio in case I’m introducing him to anyone out there!
Fela Kuti created and named his own genre, Afrobeat — a hybrid of jazz,  funk, Caribbean and (his own native) Nigerian music. Backed by his band, Africa 70, he performed and recorded songs in pigdin English rather than his native Yoruba to be sure his political message reached as far as it possibly could.

His critique of the Nigerian military regime earned him many violent confrontations with them. Zombie was an insult to the soldiers, and despite being banned, became a huge hit. In 1977 the military retaliated with a brutal attack on Fela’s compound, where some 1,000 soldiers beat, raped and tortured its inhabitants. Fela himself received a fractured skull and his mother was killed, being thrown from a window. The government attributed the attack to “unknown soldiers” — and Fela used a song of the same name to respond. (Unknown Soldier)

Most of his releases contain songs over 15 minutes long (his lyrics not coming in until after the 10-minute mark) because, as he once said, “We dance long distance here, no three-minute music for me.”

You can see some great rare footage of him performing with his band here.

Other must-listens include:

Water No Get Enemy

Expensive Shit

Colonial Mentality

Currently, there’s also a fantastic play running on Broadway,

FELA!, a biography of his life. Antibalas, a group who’ve taken up where Fela left off in the Afrobeat genre, are the house band for the play’s run.

Today is the anniversary of his death, on August 2nd 1997.