NIGERIAN bandmaster, musician and political activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti released more than 50 albums in his lifetime, authoring a legacy of Afrobeat music that is frequently fruity, sporadically furious and always lithe that will in all likelihood remain unsurpassed.
Following Questlove, Ginger Baker and Brian Eno in curating her favourite Fela albums for a deluxe box set is soul singer Erykah Badu, who narrows in on four LPs from his creatively fertile 1970s period, including the live record VIP (Vagabonds in Power), Yellow Fever and No Agreement, plus 1980’s Coffin for Head of State – dedicated to his mother, murdered by government forces – Army Arrangement (1984) and Underground System, released five years before his death in 1997 aged 58.
Two things strike you most when listening to these seven albums. One: Fela could work a band equally as well if not better than James Brown. Two: the energy throughout is consistently extraordinary, both from the man himself and his charges. There are grooves here that stretch on into the horizon and beyond before reappearing in the rearview mirror without skipping a beat.
In short, Badu’s selection is red hot.
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