Femi Kuti
Day by Day (Mercer Street)“Do you know Fela Anikulapo Kuti?” asks his son at the end of “Do You Know” from Day by Day. The question’s rhetorical; any fan of Femi Kuti most likely basks in the colossal shadow cast by his pioneering Afrobeat father. Fair or not, Femi will never escape that shadow, but he goes a long way toward establishing his own legacy on his first studio album in seven years. Gone are the collaborations with hip-hop stars that gave 2001’s Fight to Win a faintly forced feeling; welcome are elaborate jazz arrangements anchored by pounding polyrhythms. Kuti’s 17-member Positive Force has never sounded better, delicately building tension on “They Will Run” and unleashing an unstoppable funk groove on “Tension Grip Africa.” The album lacks the gut-punch intensity of brother Seun Kuti’s recent debut, and the lyrics occasionally border on the trite, but Femi certainly lives up to the family name.
This article appears in January 9 • 2009.
