by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Threads: @stlmarlonwest IG: stlmarlonwest Bluesky: @marlonweststl.bsky.social Spotify: marlonwest)
Happy Music Monday! It’s your monthly Groove Agent back with another playlist on this Reverend Martin Luther King Holiday. Today we are celebrating the life and music of the legendary Fela Kuti.
He famously asserted “Music is the weapon. Music is the weapon of the future.” and some nearly 30 years after his death in 1997, his music is still inspiring generations.
Fela Kuti has been described as Malcolm X, James Brown, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, and Dr. King all rolled into one defiant package. All contemporary forms of Black music, from funk to hiphop, owe debt to the driving grooves of the Afrobeat genre that he created.
Fela recorded more than 60 albums and spent a lifetime fighting against political corruption in his homeland of Nigeria. He was in a decades-long cycle of recording music, being arrested and beaten for it, making a song about that – REPEAT. In his homeland and around the world he was affectionately called “Black President.”
This collection was inspired by Jad Abumrad’s “Fela Kuti: Fear No Man” podcast. It’s a twelve- episode exploration of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and an amazing deep dive into the life and legacy of the multi-instrumentalist, sociopolitical powerhouse, and father of Afrobeat.
Kuti endures as one of the most important musical figures of the 20th century.
Please enjoy 9 hours of the essential works of the man often simply called: Fela!
