fela is THEE goat. he was one of the first ppl to fuse highlife, jazz, soul and traditional african music to make afrobeat. and then afrobeat went on to inspire afrobeats which is the most popular nigerian music genre now. he was a pan-african socialist and used his music for cutting social commentary on colonialism, military government rules and exploitation of the nigerian underclass. this particular song has been scratching an itch in my brain, just how he rolls his r’s. it’s reminded me of spending weekends with my grandma.
tiff I love every song on the Roforofo Fight (1972) LP, then Open & Close (1971), and Live with Ginger Baker (1972). Definitely haven't heard everything though and wish there were more slow melancholy jams like this one. Keep an eye out for Dele Sosimi playing in UK, he used to be in Fela's band and still tries to do very long late-night shows when possible
Aggressively groovy and weird live Fela Kuti from November 1983. A few things about this remind me of Sun Ra: the fast-singing choir and the organ, but something else harder to pin down, too.
crush texted me and i said hell yeah nigga we up really loud and i saw my supervisor look very taken aback but i luckily have my camera off so i’m gonna lie and blame my brother