Knitting Factory

Gentleman is both an Africa 70 and Afro-beat masterpiece. High marks go to the scathing commentary that Fela Anikulapo Kuti lets loose but also to the instrumentation and the overall arrangements, as they prove to be some of the most interesting and innov

It's impossible to go wrong with Fela Kuti's work from the 1970s, and LIVE! With Ginger Baker, which features the Afrobeat innovator backed by his powerhouse band Africa '70 and ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker, is no exception. Every cut crackles from begin

Coloured 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 genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk,

This epic Afrobeat album contains just one eponymous track clocking in at just over 25 minutes in length, and beginning with a mysterious and psychedelic musical interplay between Fela on organ and Tony Allen on drums. As the song takes on a righteously f

TDTMN' sees Fela explaining the role of the teacher in any society with the concept that everything we consider as problems, and everything we accept as good in life, begin with what we are taught. With production help coming from the extremely talented a

Sorrow, Tears and Blood (1977): A response to the Soweto Uprising of 1976 where thousands of South African students protested the forced teaching of Afrikaans. The song calls out killings that have gone on in the name of authority and totalitarian rule as

'Na Poi’ was judged pornographic by Nigerian state radio, which banned its presenters from playing it, the title track describes in frank, and some might say frankly tedious, detail the mechanics of how a man should have sex with a woman. Shock value asid

Another long-thought-lost gem from the Fela Anikulapo Kuti archives, Open & Close was originally released in 1971 and is a total groove-fest loaded to the gills with raucous horn blowing, ferocious percussion (once again, Tony Allen take a bow), and song

Yellow Fever' features original album artwork designed by Lemi Ghariokwu, who created the cover art for around half of Fela’s albums. 'Yellow Fever’ was originally released in 1976, during Fela’s extraordinarily prolific 1975-77 purple period, when he rel

“Fear Not For Man” sounds like a work in progress interrupted by the February 1977 attack, to which Fela’s two vocal choruses may or may not have been added after the event. After citing Kwame Nkrumah’s motto “the secret of life is to have no fear,” Fela

Upside Down (1976): Upside Down was written to portray a worldly travelled African, who searches the dictionary, and finds the definition of upside down a perfect description of the African situation.

This 1971 recording captured at the legendary Abbey Road studios highlights the growth of Fela as a player and Afrobeat as a style and sound; the tracks are complex, jazzy and still immediately accessible. This five track album features two classic perfor

He Miss Road combines the sound of James Brown-style 70s funk with a stripped down Afrobeat performance. Ginger Baker produced this ethereal, nearly psychedelic album with Tony Allen on drums, backed by Fela’s Africa 70 band. The title track refers to the

Beasts Of No Nation, originally released in 1989, was an indictment of the corruption and repression in post-colonial Africa. The album, whose single track took up both sides of the vinyl LP, addressed a variety of targets, each of them, said Fela, guilty

Alagbon Close - The first of Fela’s albums to have a sleeve designed by Ghariokwu Lemi, whose artwork fast became an integral part of Afrobeat's message. The disc was named after the headquarters of the Nigerian Criminal Investigation Department in Lagos.

Nigerian police, seeking to put down this independent-minded rascal, tried to plant a joint on Kuti during a gathering at his home. Wise to their plan, he quickly swallowed the joint, but the police then threw him in jail to produce the evidence from his

The fury stirred up among the Nigerian police and military by Fela’s confrontational Alagbon Close (1974) and Kalakuta Show (1976), and the beatings and harassments Fela and Africa 70 suffered as a consequence, were as nothing compared to the reprisals fo

In “I.T.T.” Fela delivers eviscerating attacks on two of his biggest personal enemies: former Nigerian president General Obasanjo, and the local chief executive of the multi-national corporations Internal Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) and Decca Records, Chi

The best known song on Afrodisiac is "Jeun K’oku," a satire about gluttony (an indulgence only available to prosperous Africans). Originally recorded as a single in 1970, it had given Fela his first major hit. In Broken English, the title translates as "c

Knitting Factory Records reissues Fela Kuti's No Agreement on vinyl LP, previously only available as part of the Box Set series. No Agreement is sometimes overlooked among Fela's 1977 releases, eclipsed by albums such as J.J.D. (Johnny Just Drop) and Sorr

Music of Many Colours is a joint album between Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti, recorded after a three week tour of Nigeria's major cities in 1979, during which Ayers performed as the opening act for Fela's band. The two artists decided to record the album as a r