Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is best known as a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, a blend of traditional yoruba and Afro-Cuban music with funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers".
Fela Anikulapo Kuti (15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, political activist, and Pan-Africanist. He is best known as a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, a blend of traditional yoruba and Afro-Cuban music with funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music performers".
Ikoyi Blindness
Fela used the cover of Ikoyi Blindness to announce his change of middle name from Ransome, which he now considered a slave name, to Anikulapo, which means “he who carries death in his pouch.” The front cover shows Ransome crossed out and Anikulapo ad…
Original Suffer Head
This edition of Original Sufferhead is a major event. With the release of box set #5, and now on this reissue, the title track of this magnificent album is presented in its full-length, 25 minutes 24 seconds glory. While preparing the master disc for…
O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake)
Overtake Don Overtake Overtake was the penultimate album of newly recorded studio material released by Fela before he passed in 1997. Like its immediate predecessor, Beasts Of No Nation (also 1989), and its followup, Underground System (1992), the al…
Noise For Vendor Mouth
"The Nigerian establishment labelled Kalakuta Republic inhabitants as — ‘hooligans’, ‘hemp smokers’, etc. Noise For Vendor Mouth is Fela’s indifference to that name calling because, for him, people in Kalakuta are really a bunch of hard working citiz…
Excuse O
The deepest song here is the second track, ""Mr Grammarticalogylisationalism Is The Boss,” which ridicules the notion that speaking ""proper"" English demonstrates superior intelligence, and bemoans the fact that doing so is, unfortunately, a require…
Kalakuta Show
"The Kalakuta Show album release was Fela’s undaunted manner of extracting revenge on the military regime that attacked and brutalized him in 1974. The second of such attacks in a space of eight months, Kalakuta Show was an attempt by the Nigerian po…
Why Black Man Dey Suffer.......
Also featuring Ginger Baker, the title track is among Fela’s first overtly political lyrics. His political perspective had evolved during the 1969 / 1970 tour of the US, largely through his friendship with the black-rights activist Sandra Izsadore, w…
Roforofo Fight
*2023 stock* "A brilliant album from Fela Kuti – and one that shows him really coming into his own, with that tremendous new sound that would go onto influence decades of musicians! The title track – Roforofo Fight – is a side-long jam that instantly…
Shakara
*50th Anniversary reissue* These percolating, horn-heavy grooves simmer while Fela Kuti lays down his trademark rants, often in deliberately skewered pidgin English....totally unstoppable in its mix of music and message. His voice, interlocking guita…
Gentleman
50th Anniversary Reissue on Igbo Smoke Vinyl. Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. A titanic musical and sociopolitical voice, Fela’s legacy spans decades and gen…
Open & Close
*2023 stock* "Perhaps the distinguishing factors of records like Open & Close and some of Fela Kuti's other '70s releases are that as much as he liked to ride a groove, he also liked to disrupt it, twist it and turn it, reshape it, only to bring it b…
Zombie
"Zombie: Fela in his life time was never ‘a good bed-fellow’ of the military institution. As a political activist, he believed the army should operate under the mandate of a civil government. If national interest compels the armed forces to intervene…
Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense
*2023 stock* "Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense: Fela explains the role of the teacher in any society with the concept that: all the things we consider as problems, and all the good things we accept from life as good, begin with what we are taught. The…
Yellow Fever
*2023 stock* Fela Kuti deplores the fashion among African women for skin-whitening creams, an example of the post-colonial inferiority complex he believed was holding back the country's development. The song addresses the fashion much as 1973’s “Gent…
J.J.D (Johnny Just Drop!!) - Live!! At Kalakuta Republik
*2023 stock* "Johnny Just Drop is talking about Africans who travel abroad only to return home with new values and mannerisms. Since the advent of colonialism in Africa, the education system left Black people with an inferior perception of their cult…
Live!
* 50th-anniversary reissue, 2LP on red vinyl * Originally recorded in 1971 at Abbey Road studios in just a few hours, 'Live!' is a collaboration between good friends former Cream drummer Ginger Baker and Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and Afrobeat pi…
Confusion
* 2022 Small Repress * Over a decade a half after his death, vindication has come to Fela Kuti, Africa’s musical genius. AfroBeat, his gift to the world, is now an international staple on his own uncompromising terms, social content intact. Throughou…
Fela's London Scene
* 50th anniversary edition of 1971's London Scene, pressed on limited edition white, red, blue splatter vinyl. Complete with a collector's gold OBI strip *Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical and outlaw…
V.I.P. (Vagabonds In Power) Vol. 1 Live In Berlin
* 2021 Repress * Knitting Factory Records reissue Fela Kuti’s ‘Army Arrangement’ on vinyl, previously only available as part of the Box Set series. ‘Army Arrangement’ is about Nigeria’s attempt at ‘democracy’ in 1979 after more than a decade of milit…
Army Arrangement
Knitting Factory Records reissue Fela Kuti’s ‘Army Arrangement’ on vinyl, previously only available as part of the Box Set series. ‘Army Arrangement’ is about Nigeria’s attempt at ‘democracy’ in 1979 after more than a decade of military rule.Bill Las…