Those who know me well know I put Fela Anikulapo Kuti on the highest of musical pedestals. In my home office, four framed photos of the Afrobeat pioneer adorn the walls, including the one above my desk, where a shirtless Fela – face painted as if preparing for war – places a chain around the neck of his bowed head. As I write this, Fela watches over. In my ears only James Brown rivals the radical Nigerian rabble-rouser. From the playful wit of “Gentleman” and “Expensive Shit” to the scathing indictments of the military government on “Zombie” and “Coffin for the Head of State,” Fela’s marathon polyrhythmic funk jams are utterly hypnotizing.
The Afrobeat torch is now in the hands of Fela’s sons Femi and Seun who, like Damian and Stephen Marley, are burdened with introducing their father’s enormous legacy to a new generation. Femi is a phenomenal live performer but I’ve never been enamored with his studio albums. The modern R&B and hip-hop touches don’t always work and too often sound like Afrobeat lite. If you’ve had similar misgivings about Femi allow me to introduce you to Seun Anikulapo Kuti, youngest son of Fela.
Seun (pronounced Shay-oon) Kuti’s debut album, Many Things (Disorient), finds him fronting his father’s Egypt 80 ensemble, a band he first played with at age eight. The youngest of the Kuti clan doesn’t run from the shadow of Fela, proudly wrapping it around his shoulders like a sorcerer’s cloak. With tracks clocking in at an average of seven minutes, Seun takes aim at Nigeria’s government and big oil corporations over classic Afrobeat grooves. Songs like “African Problems” and “Don’t Give That Shit to Me” tend to bludgeon social issues rather than prod them with the wry humor present in Fela’s best work. Of course, Seun is only 25 and with years will come nuance. More importantly, he shares his father’s unflinching intensity and fierceness of spirit that is at the heart of Afrobeat.
This article appears in August 29 • 2008.
