The drummer and unofficial music director of the late Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70, from 1968 until 1979, Tony Allen (born Tony Oladipo Allen) helped create the sounds of Afro-beat. With his solo recordings, however, Allen has refused to remain stagnant, incorporating dub and avant-garde hip-hop influences into his modern African dance music.... [+] Read More

The drummer and unofficial music director of the late Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70, from 1968 until 1979, Tony Allen (born Tony Oladipo Allen) helped create the sounds of Afro-beat. With his solo recordings, however, Allen has refused to remain stagnant, incorporating dub and avant-garde hip-hop influences into his modern African dance music.

A self-taught musician, Allen began to play drums at the age of 18 while working as a technician for a Nigerian radio station. Within nine months, he had embarked on a professional career as a drummer. Although they had known each other since the early '60s, when they performed on the Nigerian music circuit with different bands, Allen and Kuti began playing American-style jazz together in 1964. Before long, they shifted to a more African-influenced style of highlife jazz, which they continued to play for five years.

Forming Africa 70 in 1969, Allen and Kuti began reaching out to an international audience. A few months later, while touring North America for the first time, Allen was introduced to the music of James Brown, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. Despite critical acclaim, the group faced numerous obstacles, including financial difficulties, racial discrimination, and political oppression. Arrested during the first of a long series of government-sponsored raids of black townships in 1974, Allen spent three days in jail. The following year, he released his first album as a leader, Progress. After performing his last show with Kuti and Africa 70 at the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1979, Allen continued to play with his group Lagos until emigrating to Europe in 1984. After temporarily living in London, he settled in France the following year and worked as a session drummer for such transplanted African musicians as Ray Lema and Manu DiBango, and released N.E.P.A. (Never Expect Power Always) in 1985.

Allen was largely inactive for the next decade, re-emerging in the late '90s with a string of singles, culminating in the release of Home Cooking in 2002. Reissues of his '70s solo albums started showing up around the same time, as well as Eager Hands and Restless Feet: The Best of Tony Allen, a summation of his post-Fela career. In 2004 a live album came out, and 2006 saw a return to his Afro-Beat roots with Lagos No Shaking, which was recorded in the Nigerian city itself. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The son of Afro-beat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi Kuti spent years playing in his father's band before eventually rising to superstardom following his father's death in the late '90s. Since few artists can match his father's legacy of not only music but influence, Femi's relation as his son is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand,... [+] Read More

The son of Afro-beat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Femi Kuti spent years playing in his father's band before eventually rising to superstardom following his father's death in the late '90s. Since few artists can match his father's legacy of not only music but influence, Femi's relation as his son is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it's never been difficult for Femi to garner press or attention, and MCA went out of its way to push his career with ridiculous amounts of publicity. Yet on the other hand, no matter his individual accomplishments, Femi will forever be known as Fela's son. Practicing a similar style of Afro-beat as his father, Femi helped introduce the percussive blend of jazz and funk music to the international masses beginning in the mid-'90s, along with his father's same sense of political activism. After his father's death in 1997, Femi suddenly found himself the subject of immense attention. He responded by signing with MCA and embarking on his solo career beginning with Shoki Shoki. He won tremendous critical celebration around the world and began making efforts to break into the U.S. mainstream in successive years.

Born in London and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Femi's musical career started when he began playing in his father's band, Egypt 80. In 1986, Femi started his own band, Positive Force, and began establishing himself as an artist independent of his father's massive legacy. In the mid-'90s, Motown offered him a record deal with its boutique label, Tabu. Femi's eponymous debut album resulted. Released in 1995, the album won praise throughout Europe and Africa for offering a more streamlined and accessible version of his father's music. Femi embarked on an extended promotional tour, crossing first Africa, then Europe in 1996 and 1997. His solo career was off to a successful start, despite the dissolution of Motown's Tabu label and Femi's record deal with it.

However, this problem became the least of Femi's concerns when his father sadly died of AIDS-related complications in 1997. Shortly afterwards, his sister, Sola, also suffered an untimely death, making 1997 a truly dark year for Femi. He would later write "'97," a song that candidly reflects on this particularly tragic time. Yet with tragedy comes opportunity in the world of music, and Femi ultimately signed a major-label record deal with Polygram in December 1997, only months after his father's death. MCA made the most out of the situation, repackaging, and re-releasing much of Fela's catalog and setting the stage for Femi's MCA debut album in the process. Following months of press and hype, MCA released Shoki Shoki in early 1999 to widespread acclaim from a number of esteemed publications like the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vibe, not to mention other smaller publications.

A year later, Femi returned with his second album, Fight to Win, and toured the States with Jane's Addiction in an effort to crossover to a more mainstream audience. Part of this crossover effort meant aligning himself closer to hip-hop and its gigantic audience. Fight to Win featured a number of respected rap artists like Mos Def and Common. As expected, critics celebrated the album, though western masses seemed rather indifferent to both the album and Femi's concert trek with Jane's Addiction. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Though little known in their native U.S., the Parisian-based Lafayette Afro Rock Band was among the premier funk outfits of the 1970s, later becoming a seemingly endless source of samples and breaks for artists from Public Enemy to Janet Jackson. The group was formed on Long Island, NY as the Bobby Boy Congress; deciding America was already... [+] Read More

Though little known in their native U.S., the Parisian-based Lafayette Afro Rock Band was among the premier funk outfits of the 1970s, later becoming a seemingly endless source of samples and breaks for artists from Public Enemy to Janet Jackson. The group was formed on Long Island, NY as the Bobby Boy Congress; deciding America was already overloaded with funk acts, in 1971 they relocated to France, but when frontman Bobby Boy returned stateside the remaining members -- guitarist Larry Jones, bassist Lafayette Hudson, keyboardist Frank Abel, horn players Ronnie James Buttacavoli and Arthur Young, drummer Ernest "Donny" Donable and percussionists Keno Speller and Arthur Young -- renamed themselves Ice and became the house session band at producer Pierre Jaubert's Parisound studio. Regularly performing live in Paris' Barbesse district -- an area made up primarily of African immigrants -- Ice's driving funk became increasingly influenced by African rhythms and textures, and in the wake of their 1973 debut LP Each Man Makes His Own Destiny, Jaubert changed the group's name to the Lafayette Afro Rock Band.

Guitarist Michael McEwan replaced Jones in time to record 1974's Soul Makossa (issued in the U.S. as Movin' & Groovin'), highlighted by the oft-covered and much-sampled "Hihache"; the follow-up, Malik, featured the cut "Darkest Night," its desolate saxophone intro later sampled for use by Public Enemy for the It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back track "Show 'Em Whatcha Got" in addition to providing the foundation for Wreckx 'N' Effect's "Rump Shaker" and Tuff Crew's "Nut." Also in 1975, the Lafayette Afro Rock Band backed jazz pianist Mal Waldron on his unreleased Candy Girl album; the year following, they collaborated with expatriate bluesman Sunnyland Slim on his album Depression Blues. With 1976's Frisco Disco, the group reverted to the Ice moniker; concurrently, working under the alias Captain Dax, they scored a novelty hit in Japan with the single "Dr. Beezar, Soul Frankenstein." Afro Agban followed in 1978, while as Crispy and Co., the band resurfaced that same year with Funky Flavored before returning to America and disbanding. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The Daktaris were an Afro-beat group on the New York-based funk revival label Desco, recording compact, Fela Kuti-style grooves that sounded as though they'd come straight out of 1970s Nigeria. At first, Desco did nothing to discourage that perception, packaging their 1998 album Soul Explosion to look like an authentically African collector's... [+] Read More

The Daktaris were an Afro-beat group on the New York-based funk revival label Desco, recording compact, Fela Kuti-style grooves that sounded as though they'd come straight out of 1970s Nigeria. At first, Desco did nothing to discourage that perception, packaging their 1998 album Soul Explosion to look like an authentically African collector's dream, and even giving some of the band members Nigerian aliases. But in reality, the Daktaris were Brooklyn-based studio musicians, many of them white, many of whom had already been assembled by Desco heads Gabriel Roth and Phillipe Lehman as the label's house band, the Soul Providers. Besieged by inquiries about the music's origins and demand for a Daktaris tour, Roth and Lehman soon acknowledged the hoax, but given the quality of the album, the backlash wasn't enormously great. There was no follow-up to the Daktaris' initial session, but some of the members formed a new Afro-beat revivalist group called Antibalas in the spring of 1998. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide [-] Hide

It's almost impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Fela Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti (or just Fela as he's more commonly known) to the global musical village: producer, arranger, musician, political radical, outlaw. He was all that, as well as showman par excellence, inventor of Afro-beat, an unredeemable sexist, and a moody... [+] Read More

It's almost impossible to overstate the impact and importance of Fela Anikulapo (Ransome) Kuti (or just Fela as he's more commonly known) to the global musical village: producer, arranger, musician, political radical, outlaw. He was all that, as well as showman par excellence, inventor of Afro-beat, an unredeemable sexist, and a moody megalomaniac. His death on August 3, 1997 of complications from AIDS deeply affected musicians and fans internationally, as a musical and sociopolitical voice on a par with Bob Marley was silenced. A press release from the United Democratic Front of Nigeria on the occasion of Fela's death noted: "Those who knew you well were insistent that you could never compromise with the evil you had fought all your life. Even though made weak by time and fate, you remained strong in will and never abandoned your goal of a free, democratic, socialist Africa." This is as succinct a summation of Fela's political agenda as one is likely to find.

Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, north of Lagos in 1938, Fela's family was firmly middle class as well as politically active. His father was a pastor (and talented pianist), his mother active in the anti-colonial, anti-military, Nigerian home rule movement. So at an early age, Fela experienced politics and music in a seamless combination. His parents, however, were less interested in his becoming a musician and more interested in his becoming a doctor, so they packed him off to London in 1958 for what they assumed would be a medical education; instead, Fela registered at Trinity College's school of music. Tired of studying European composers, Fela formed his first band, Koola Lobitos, in 1961, and quickly became a fixture on the London club scene. He returned to Nigeria in 1963 and started another version of Koola Lobitos that was more influenced by the James Brown-style singing of Geraldo Pina from Sierra Leone. Combining this with elements of traditional high life and jazz, Fela dubbed this intensely rhythmic hybrid "Afro-beat," partly as critique of African performers whom he felt had turned their backs on their African musical roots in order to emulate current American pop music trends.

In 1969, Fela brought Koola Lobitos to Los Angeles to tour and record. They toured America for about eight months using Los Angeles as a home base. It was while in L.A. that Fela hooked up with a friend, Sandra Isidore, who introduced him to the writings and politics of Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver (and by extension the Black Panthers), and other proponents of Black nationalism and Afrocentrism. Impressed at what he read, Fela was politically revivified and decided that some changes were in order: first, the name of the band, as Koola Lobitos became Nigeria 70; second, the music would become more politically explicit and critical of the oppression of the powerless worldwide. After a disagreement with an unscrupulous promoter who turned them in to the Immigration and Naturalization Services, Fela and band were charged with working without work permits. Realizing that time was short before they were sent back to Nigeria, they were able to scrape together some money to record some new songs in L.A. What came to be known as the '69 Los Angeles Sessions were remarkable, an indication of a maturing sound and of the raucous, propulsive music that was to mark Fela's career. Afrobeat's combination of blaring horn sections, antiphonal vocals, Fela's quasi-rapping pidgin English, and percolating guitars, all wrapped up in a smoldering groove (in the early days driven by the band's brilliant drummer Tony Allen) that could last nearly an hour, was an intoxicating sound. Once hooked, it was impossible to get enough.

Upon returning to Nigeria, Fela founded a communal compound-cum-recording studio and rehearsal space he called the Kalakuta Republic, and a nightclub, the Shrine. It was during this time that he dropped his given middle name of "Ransome" which he said was a slave name, and took the name "Anikulapo" (meaning "he who carries death in his pouch") . Playing constantly and recording at a ferocious pace, Fela and band (who were now called Africa 70) became huge stars in West Africa. His biggest fan base, however, was Nigeria's poor. Because his music addressed issues important to the Nigerian underclass (specifically a military government that profited from political exploitation and disenfranchisement), Fela was more than a simply a pop star; like Bob Marley in Jamaica, he was the voice of Nigeria's have-nots, a cultural rebel. This was something Nigeria's military junta tried to nip in the bud, and from almost the moment he came back to Nigeria up until his death, Fela was hounded, jailed, harassed, and nearly killed by a government determined to silence him. In one of the most egregious acts of violence committed against him, 1,000 Nigerian soldiers attacked his Kalakuta compound in 1977 (the second government-sanctioned attack). Fela suffered a fractured skull as well as other broken bones; his 82-year old mother was thrown from an upstairs window, inflicting injuries that would later prove fatal. The soldiers set fire to the compound and prevented fire fighters from reaching the area. Fela's recording studio, all his master tapes and musical instruments were destroyed.

After the Kalakuta tragedy, Fela briefly lived in exile in Ghana, returning to Nigeria in 1978. In 1979 he formed his own political party, MOP (Movement of the People), and at the start of the new decade renamed his band Egypt 80. From 1980-1983, Nigeria was under civilian rule, and it was a relatively peaceful period for Fela, who recorded and toured non-stop. Military rule returned in 1983, and in 1984 Fela was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of currency smuggling. With help from Amnesty International, he was freed in 1985.

As the '80s ended, Fela recorded blistering attacks against Nigeria's corrupt military government, as well as broadsides aimed at Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan (most abrasively on the album Beasts of No Nation). Never what you would call progressive when it came to relationships with women or patriarchy in general (the fact was that he was sexist in the extreme, which is ironic when you consider that his mother was one of Nigeria's early feminists), he was coming around to the struggles faced by African women, but only just barely. Stylistically speaking, Fela's music didn't change much during this time, and much of what he recorded, while good, was not as blistering as some of the amazing music he made in the '70s. Still, when a Fela record appeared, it was always worth a listen. He was unusually quiet in the '90s, which may have had something to do with how ill he was; very little new music appeared, but in as great a series of reissues as the planet has ever seen, the London-based Stern's Africa label re-released some of his long unavailable records (including The '69 Los Angeles Sessions), and the seminal works of this remarkable musician were again filling up CD bins. He never broke big in the U.S. market, and it's hard to imagine him having the same kind of posthumous profile that Marley does, but Fela's 50-something releases offer up plenty of remarkable music, and a musical legacy that lives on in the person of his talented son Femi. Around the turn of the millennium, Universal began remastering and reissuing a goodly portion of Fela's many recordings, finally making some of his most important work widely available to American listeners. ~ John Dougan, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Part of MCA's outstanding series of "Fela Originals," this album contains the contents of two earlier Fela Kuti albums: Shakara and Fela's London Scene. Fela's London Scene was one of the first recordings made by Fela and his newly named Nigeria 70, with recordings at Abbey Road and gigs scheduled around the album by Cream's Ginger Baker (who is... [+] Read More

Part of MCA's outstanding series of "Fela Originals," this album contains the contents of two earlier Fela Kuti albums: Shakara and Fela's London Scene. Fela's London Scene was one of the first recordings made by Fela and his newly named Nigeria 70, with recordings at Abbey Road and gigs scheduled around the album by Cream's Ginger Baker (who is said to have some uncredited time on the album). It is some of the earliest notions of Afro-beat. Fela is shaking off the highlife forms that he had been entertaining and moving to a deeper, more simmering groove. It also marks the beginning of a bit of his social commentary. He exhorts his fellow Africans to purchase African goods in "Buy Africa" and puts out a call to the Pan-African counterculture in "J'EHIN J'EHIN" and "Egbe Mi O." What one notices in this section of the album is a stripped-down groove that simmers until Fela finally breaks it out into a fully grown work of funk. In the Shakara section (with some 50 bare-breasted women on the cover helping sell the album), one finds fun (and perhaps shame) pointed at the westernizing African woman in "Lady" (espousing feminism, she believes herself equal to men, and espousing westernism, she takes on a delicate/weak form as a lady). In the title track the fun is poked instead at braggarts who don't back up their bravado. The main focus of this album, though, is to provide a good, danceable groove. This is exactly what Fela does. Pick it up as a landmark and a dance album together, but more importantly as a fan of Fela. ~ Adam Greenberg, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The name may not be familiar, but the Lafayette Afro Rock Band's grooves certainly are. A veritable sampler's paradise, snippets of their hip-hugger-tight funk have served as the bedrock of innumerable rap records, most notably Public Enemy's "Show 'Em Whatcha Got." Darkest Light assembles 15 tracks from the group's mid-'70s heyday, revealing a... [+] Read More

The name may not be familiar, but the Lafayette Afro Rock Band's grooves certainly are. A veritable sampler's paradise, snippets of their hip-hugger-tight funk have served as the bedrock of innumerable rap records, most notably Public Enemy's "Show 'Em Whatcha Got." Darkest Light assembles 15 tracks from the group's mid-'70s heyday, revealing a deep, versatile unit truly justified in adopting such an international name -- their music indeed embraces both Afrobeat and Western psychedelia in equal measure, complete with hard-edged guitar riffs, incendiary sax breaks, and blistering rhythms. Although the title track inspired Public Enemy, "Hihache" also features a much-sampled drum intro and the relentless "Conga" later resurfaced on a volume of the Ultimate Breaks and Beats series. But to break this music down to its base elements is to do the greater whole a grave disservice -- Darkest Light merits discussion alongside any of the great documents of classic funk. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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More than two years after his death, the first coordinated reissue campaign of Fela Kuti material began with this collection, a double-disc set including 13 of his best-known jams. Beginning with three tracks from 1972 (the second disc also has a track from that year), The Best Best of Fela Kuti ranges through his entire career, though the focus... [+] Read More

More than two years after his death, the first coordinated reissue campaign of Fela Kuti material began with this collection, a double-disc set including 13 of his best-known jams. Beginning with three tracks from 1972 (the second disc also has a track from that year), The Best Best of Fela Kuti ranges through his entire career, though the focus is appropriately on the '70s. Kuti's infectious combo of high-stepping soul revival and African township jazz has never been equaled. And his band was chocked with excellent musicians, starting with the keyboards and saxophone of its leader but also including propulsive drummer Tony Allen, baritone saxophonist Lekan Animashaun, trumpeter Tunde Williams, and bassist Franco Aboddy. As good as the music is, The Best Best of Fela Kuti really shines when it comes to the songwriting. It's an excellent primer on Kuti's various protest targets -- the oppressive Nigerian government and military, the increasing Westernization of Africa, unnecessary violence, hypocrisy, and pride -- and wisely includes explanatory notes for each track. The editing and compilation work are also done very well. Though many of the tracks had to be modified down to the ten-minute range, the flow is natural and very smooth. The one caveat is the detrimental effect of diminishing returns; Kuti's style was practically trademarked, and after over 150 minutes of jams, the tracks tend to blend together and obscure their individual significance. Overall though, this is an incredibly important work; it's the first truly historical item on Kuti and should finally bring the magic of Fela Kuti to Western audiences. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

This debut album was an extremely popular record in Africa and Europe; it introduced Kuti's cleaner, more succinct take on his father Fela Kuti's legendary Afro beat sound. Packed with contagious rhythms born of African, jazz, and funk melodies, Femi Kuti represents an important offering to world music. Standout tracks include "Wonder," which is... [+] Read More

This debut album was an extremely popular record in Africa and Europe; it introduced Kuti's cleaner, more succinct take on his father Fela Kuti's legendary Afro beat sound. Packed with contagious rhythms born of African, jazz, and funk melodies, Femi Kuti represents an important offering to world music. Standout tracks include "Wonder," which is full of funky grooves and pointed lyrics about African unity, and "Survival," with its swinging, hip-rolling percussion. ~ Rosalind Cummings-Yeates, All Music Guide [-] Hide