Whenever my parents talk about the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, they say things like: “That rascal!” “What a rebel!” and “Heathen!” But let me play a Fela track off of Youtube and you best believe they know every single note and lyric.
Fela was quite the innovator. Besides marrying multiple wives in one year, he also created his own political party in Nigeria. Musically, he was a composer: meaning, he didn’t just lay down a verse and leave the studio or produce a song. You ever hear a Fela track? It’s not easy to consume. You have to wait for it to ride all the way out.
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Most of us will never know what it was like to live during the Fela era, but today the Internet has made his music accessible to a whole new generation of musical innovators. When I was a college sophomore just discovering music, I came across a few Fela remakes from the Red Hot Organization called Red Hot + Riot. The Bugz in the Attic remake of Zombie is one of my favorite tracks from the album.
D’you have any favorite Fela melodies? Did you catch a Felabration last month? Holla!
wow..nice ! I got the Red Hot + Riot album from the people in charge of that project, complete with posters and stickers. SOlid.
Fela is the biggest thing to come out of Nigeria. His influence is everywhere. The dude really had death in his pouch…Cos he is not dead…
I love the Red Hot + Riot album! Whenever I listen to it I'm immediately transported to an interesting time in my life. Have you heard the new compilation The Best of the Black President?
Not only did I catch Felabration in Atlanta Oct. 24, but I caught it in NY Oct 31st tooo! FIYAAA!! I remember as a little girl listening to Fela in the 80's. My dad's fave song was Army Agreement! Fela is the MAN!! I am so honored to even have shared just a smidgen of time on this Earth with his genius.
LOL, my parents also had mixed feelings about FELA too. Dad played his music all the time and some of my fav memories are my brothers and Dad dancing to his endless grooves on record. But my Dad also talked about how Fela lived a reckless life and died of AIDS with a certain kind of disdain. It was so weird to me as a child how my Dad loved the man's music so much but seemed to have little care for the man behind the sax (Sadly or weirdly I was able to understand this better via MJ as an older child)
My favorite tracks are Yellow Fever, Zombie and Palavre…but there's so many.
I really didn't like the Red Hot Riot cd that much because I think I prefer FELA raw and uncut rather that the sampled chopped up version they presented. I liked alot of the tracks but I didn't feel like they captured the unadulterated energy of Africa 70 and they're grooves. It was a great tribute though.
Sadly, I was performing out of town when Felabrations hit Atl but I'm glad to see him getting some recognition on a wider platform cuz he was truly a monumental icon that still deserves way more attention.