Fela Kuti

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Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria (1938 – 1997)

Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 Oct 1938 – 2 Aug 1997), or simply Fela, was a Nigerian musician and , pioneer of music, human rights activist, political maverick & leader of Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa ‘70.

HMV Magazine ranked him as #46 on a list of the 100 most influential musicians of the 20th century.

The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is essentially a fusion of , , , and traditional Yoruban chants and rhythms. It is characterized by having African-style percussion, vocals, and musical structure, along with jazzy, funky horn sections. The endless groove is also used, in which a base rhythm of drums, shekere, muted guitar, and bass guitar are repeated throughout the song. His band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones, whereas most groups using this instrument only use one. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles, and can be seen in funk and . Some elements often present in Fela’s music are the within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. Fela’s songs were almost always over 10 minutes in length, some reaching the 20- or even 30-minute marks, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. This was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside of Africa. His songs were mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language.
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  • cjkisaragi

    It was just a bootleg originally, remember.

    last week

  • Heizdeckchen

    Really disappointed about the sound quality of the new release live Detroit. Really bad mix... But the compositions still great

    8 days ago

  • haloedeyes

    fucking genius

    last month

  • co-bolt

    Does the length of music mean anything? It can, I don't doubt that. And surely there is a big difference in approach or even accessibility in between them. One has to go into music theory or even the sociology of consuming music to differ it. But neglecting the racial aspect is kinda stubborn. "Topical" is a crude rhetorical figure for that.

    last month

  • barryvs

    Kuti's music isn't as popular and hasn't enjoyed the main-stream success that Marley has, which is a big factor in the mugs and the t-shirts. Don't put it down to racism because you feel like being topical. Marley's music is more accessible, and usually a lot shorter than the jams that Fela Kuti produced.

    last month

  • co-bolt

    And in the next step, one should think about the very own society, how it functions/work. Accusing musicians is a lame version of moral. I am not hailing for Fela or Marley or Coltrane. If I want to learn at thing about my government or about capitalism or even racism, I have to sit my ass and study.

    March 2012

  • co-bolt

    Hard to compare both of them. First, both are some special musicians who helped to widen the interest in Africa and the so-called third world as well. If you want to, one can just focus on their music, enjoy it and have a nice day. If you dig deeper, you will find certain contradictions or issues that might have or have a meaning for people on the political left even today. Otherwise it is bit of paternizing to sort different musicians and their contribution for the left. I wouldn't accuse one of them of being integrated by western commercial media or something else. Everyone' critizing, every critic can not prevent his ideas, believes or even scientific approaches to an issue not to be commercialized. We're are talkin on Last.fm, that's commerce as well, cause most people are expected to discover new music in order to buy stuff. That's just the way how capitalism works. Not just in the west, even in Africa or South America. One can only try to embrace and discuss the music.

    March 2012

  • scottdvbstyle

    R.I.P.

    March 2012
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