Songs of Fela Anikulapo Kuti

The Devil only knew how many songs were being mixed into old school rap songs in the 80s. One fine day a singer decided to sue rapper Biz Markie. The sueing later screwed Biz Markie through & through. Since then then record labels have been scrupulous when it came to acknowledging artistes who were being sampled. Tapes & CDs came with inlay sleeves that were a mile long & contained crap loads of fine-print. Most people tend to overlook this part of the album. I personally found it to be a gold mine of info like no other. Using these sleeves I've been able to find unheard of (at least by me) sounds,singers & bands. Some of them suck & most don't.

One such artist I came across was Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Fela is to Nigeria what Bob Marley was to Jamaica. Together with his band - Africa 70, he generated hard hitting music which could be best defined as drum & horn driven jazz-funk explosions. It kind of sounds like a military band got a snort of coke & let lose their fury. It also reminded me of Eddy Grants own brand of reggae - Ringbang. In short its funk drenched with syncopated rythms, lavished horn blasts. Songs are sung by Fela in pidgin english and are all about military oppression of Nigerians & other Afrocentric issues. But like most good music about serious issues, the issues take a back seat when u listen to them.

Some must listen numbers include:

1>Zombie
2>Lady
3>Confusion
4>No Agreement
5>Original Suffer Head
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