Fela Kuti#Chief Priest Say

File: Family Ransome Kuti c1940.jpg and Chief Funmilayo seated, Dolu at back, Fela in the foreground and baby Beko, with Olikoye at right]]

Kuti{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/arts/celebrating-the-life-and-impact-of-the-nigerian-music-legend-fela.html?pagewanted=1|title=Celebrating the Life and Impact of the Nigerian Music Legend Fela |last=Ogunnaike |first=Lola |date=17 July 2003 |work=The New York Times |access-date=18 November 2010}} was born into the Ransome-Kuti family, an upper-middle-class family, on 15 October 1938, in Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria.{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Abeokuta |edition=15th |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago, IL |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/27 27] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/27}} His mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was an anti-colonial feminist, and his father, Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, was an Anglican minister, school principal, and the first president of the Nigeria Union of Teachers.{{cite web |title=Origin of NUT |url=https://www.nut-nigeria.org/index.php/2016-01-08-15-02-20/origin-of-nut |website=nut-nigeria.org |publisher=Nigeria Union of Teachers |access-date=13 January 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926145650/http://nut-nigeria.org/index.php/2016-01-08-15-02-20/origin-of-nut |url-status=dead }} Kuti's parents both played active roles in the anti-colonial movement in Nigeria, most notably the Abeokuta Women's Riots which were led by his mother in 1946.{{cite journal |last1=Olukayode Segun |first1=Eesuola |last2=Ojakorotu |first2=Victor |title=Indigenised popular songs for oppositional political communication : Fela Kuti and Miriam Makeba in perspectives |journal=African Renaissance |date=20 March 2019 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=233–251 |id={{ProQuest|2233905339}} |doi=10.31920/2516-5305/2019/v16n1a12 |s2cid=242156522 }} His brothers Beko Ransome-Kuti and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both medical doctors, were well known nationally.{{cite magazine |author-first=Lindsay |author-last=Barrett |author-link=Lindsay Barrett |title=Fela Kuti: Chronicle of A Life Foretold |magazine=The Wire |date=September 2011 |orig-date=March 1998 |issue=169 |url=http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/fela-kuti_chronicle-ofa-life-foretold |access-date=2015-06-13}} Kuti is a cousin{{Cite web |date=2010-10-30 |title=Fela Kuti remembered: 'He was a tornado of a man, but he loved humanity' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/31/fela-kuti-musical-neil-spencer |access-date=2022-03-09 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} to the writer and laureate Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize for Literature winner.{{cite web | url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1986/press-release/ | title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1986 }} They are both descendants of Josiah Ransome-Kuti, who is Kuti's paternal grandfather and Soyinka's maternal great-grandfather.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/31/fela-kuti-musical-neil-spencer |title=Fela Kuti remembered: 'He was a tornado of a man, but he loved humanity' |last=Spencer |first=Neil |date=2010-10-30 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en-GB |access-date=1 October 2016}}

Kuti attended Abeokuta Grammar School. In 1958, he was sent to London to study medicine but decided to study music instead at the Trinity College of Music, with the trumpet being his preferred instrument. While there, he formed the band Koola Lobitos and played a fusion of jazz and highlife.{{cite journal |last1=Olatunji |first1=Michael |year=2007 |title=Yabis: A Phenomenon in the Contemporary Nigerian Music |journal=The Journal of Pan African Studies |volume=1 |pages=26–46 |url=http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol1no9/Yabis.pdf}} The ensemble would include members, Bayo Martins on drums and Wole Bucknor on piano.Loyal Nana, February 26, 2019 - [https://www.loyalnana.com/stories-1/2019/2/26/fela-kuti FELA KUTI - Eleanor Igwe] In 1960, Kuti married his first wife, Remilekun (Remi) Taylor, with whom he had three children (Yeni, Femi, and Sola).{{cite web |title=VANGUARD|url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201510151630.html |access-date=27 August 2020 |website=allafrica}} In 1963, Kuti moved back to the newly independent Federation of Nigeria, re-formed Koola Lobitos, and trained as a radio producer for the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. He played for some time with Victor Olaiya and his All-Stars.{{cite magazine |url=http://exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=136&csid2=849&fid1=40282 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130101012030/http://exclaim.ca/musicreviews/generalreview.aspx?csid1=136&csid2=849&fid1=40282 |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 January 2013 |title=Victor Olaiya, All Star Soul International |author=David Ryshpan |magazine=Exclaim! |access-date=3 November 2009}}

He called his style Afrobeat, a combination of Apala, funk, jazz, highlife, salsa, calypso, and traditional Yoruba music. In 1969, Kuti took the band to the United States and spent ten months in Los Angeles. While there, he discovered the Black Power movement through Sandra Smith (now known as Sandra Izsadore or Sandra Akanke Isidore),{{cite web|url=http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/10/12/sandra-iszadore-fashola-ajibade-others-speak-at-felabration/|title=Sandra Iszadore, Fashola, Ajibade, others speak at Felabration|website=PM News|location=Nigeria|first=Funsho|last= Arogundade|date=12 October 2015|access-date=7 November 2021}} a partisan of the Black Panther Party. This experience heavily influenced his music and political views.{{cite news |url=http://www.laweekly.com/arts/fela-kutis-lover-and-mentor-sandra-smith-talks-about-afrobeats-la-origins-as-fela-musical-arrives-at-the-ahmanson-2370345 |title=Fela Kuti's Lover and Mentor Sandra Smith Talks About Afrobeat's L.A. Origins, as Fela! Musical Arrives at the Ahmanson |work=L.A. Weekly |date=December 13, 2011 |access-date=April 3, 2016 |author=Tewksbury, Drew}} He renamed the band Nigeria 70. Soon after, the Immigration and Naturalization Service was tipped off by a promoter that Kuti and his band were in the US without work permits. The band performed a quick recording session in Los Angeles that would later be released as The '69 Los Angeles Sessions.{{cite book |last1=Olaniyan |first1=Tejumola |title=Arrest the Music!: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics |date=2004 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-11034-3 |oclc=65189067 }}{{page needed|date=December 2022}}

After Kuti and his band returned to Nigeria, the group was renamed (the) Africa '70 as lyrical themes changed from love to social issues. He formed the Kalakuta Republic—a commune, recording studio, and home for many people connected to the band—which he later declared independent from the Nigerian state.

{{anchor|Club}}Kuti set up a nightclub in the Empire Hotel. He first named the Afro-Spot and later the Afrika Shrine, where he performed regularly and officiated at personalised Yoruba traditional ceremonies in honor of his native ancestral faith. He also changed his name to Anikulapo (meaning "He who carries death in his pouch", with the interpretation: "I will be the master of my own destiny and will decide when it is time for death to take me").{{cite web |url=http://www.nigerian.name/w/index.php?title=Anikulapo |title=Meaning of Anikulapo in |publisher=Nigerian.name |date=11 January 2008 |access-date=1 October 2011}} He stopped using the hyphenated surname "Ransome" because he considered it a slave name.{{Cite web |title=Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti (Abami Eda) |url=https://africabokutalent.org/directory/talent/fela-anikulapo-kuti-abami-eda/ |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Africa Boku Talent |language=en-US}}

Kuti's music was popular among the Nigerian public and Africans in general.{{cite web |url=http://emn-news.com/fela-anikulapo-kuti-the-ghost-resurrects-and-the-beat-goes-on-a-review-by-the-independence/ |title=Fela Anikulapo Kuti: The 'ghost' resurrects and the beat goes on, a preview by The Independence |publisher=Emnnews.com |access-date=1 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140117023623/http://emn-news.com/fela-anikulapo-kuti-the-ghost-resurrects-and-the-beat-goes-on-a-review-by-the-independence/ |archive-date=17 January 2014 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}} He decided to sing in Pidgin English so that individuals all over Africa could enjoy his music, where the local languages they speak are diverse and numerous. As popular as Kuti's music had become in Nigeria and elsewhere, it was unpopular with the government, and raids on the Kalakuta Republic were frequent. During 1972, Ginger Baker recorded Stratavarious, with Kuti appearing alongside vocalist and guitarist Bobby Tench.[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p130948/credits|pure_url=yes}} Bobby Gass credits], AllMusic Around this time, Kuti became even more involved with the Yoruba religion.

In 1977, Kuti and Africa 70 released the album Zombie, which heavily criticized Nigerian soldiers, and used the zombie metaphor to describe the Nigerian military's methods. The album was a massive success and infuriated the government, who raided the Kalakuta Republic with 1,000 soldiers. During the raid, Kuti was severely beaten, and his elderly mother (the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria) was fatally injured after being thrown from a window. The commune was burnt down, and Kuti's studio, instruments, and master tapes were destroyed. Kuti claimed that he would have been killed had it not been for a commanding officer's intervention as he was being beaten. Kuti's response to the attack was to deliver his mother's coffin to the Dodan Barracks in Lagos, General Olusegun Obasanjo's residence, and to write two songs, "Coffin for Head of State" and "Unknown Soldier," referencing the official inquiry that claimed an unknown soldier had destroyed the commune.{{cite news|author=Matthew McKinnon|date=12 August 2005|title=Rebel Yells: A protest music mixtape|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|url=http://www.cbc.ca/arts/photoessay/protest/index14.html|access-date=22 November 2009|archive-date=3 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703033106/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/photoessay/protest/index14.html|url-status=dead}}

Kuti and his band took up residence in Crossroads Hotel after the Shrine had been destroyed along with the commune. In 1978, he married 27 women, many of whom were dancers, composers, and singers with whom he worked. The marriages served not only to mark the anniversary of the attack on the Kalakuta Republic but also to protect Kuti and his wives from authorities' false claims that Kuti was kidnapping women.{{cite book |last=See: Washington |first=Teresa N. |title=The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature |publisher=Oya's Tornado |year=2014 |pages=218–219 |isbn=978-0991073016}} Later, he adopted a rotation system of maintaining 12 simultaneous wives.{{cite news |last=Culshaw |first=Peter |title=The big Fela |url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1927705,00.html |work=The Guardian |location=London |date=15 August 2004 |access-date=2 May 2010}} There were also two concerts in the year: the first was in Accra, in which rioting broke out during the song "Zombie", which caused Kuti to be banned from entering Ghana; the second was after the Berlin Jazz Festival when most of Kuti's musicians deserted him due to rumours that he planned to use all of the proceeds to fund his presidential campaign.

In 1978 Fela performed at the Berliner Jazztage in Berlin with his band Africa 70. Disappointed by their fees, Tony Allen, the band leader and almost all the musicians resigned.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/arts/music/tony-allen-dead.html | title=Tony Allen, Drummer Who Created the Beat of Afrobeat, Dies at 79 | work=The New York Times | date=2 May 2020 | last1=Pareles | first1=Jon }} Since then, Baryton player Lekan Animashaun became band leader and Fela created a new group named Egypt 80. In 1979, Kuti formed his political party, which he called Movement of the People (MOP), to "clean up society like a mop", but it quickly became inactive due to his confrontations with the government of the day. MOP preached Nkrumahism and Africanism.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmBcCAAAQBAJ|title=Fela: Kalakuta Notes |last=Collins |first=John |date=5 June 2015 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |isbn=9780819575401}}Fela Kuti: Music is the Weapon. Directors Jean-Jacques Flori and Stephane Tchalgadjieff. 1982. Universal Import. March 2004.

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In 1980 Fela signed an exclusive management with French producer Martin Meissonnier who secured a record deal with Arista records London through A&R Tarquin Gotch. The first album came out in February 1981 under the title of "Black President" with the track "ITT" and on the B-Side "Colonial Mentality" and an edited version of "Sorrow Tears and Blood" (these two tracks recorded with Africa 70 and Tony Allen were unreleased in Europe).{{cite web | url=https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/515650-Fela-Anikulapo-Kuti-Black-President | title=Fela Anikulapo Kuti - Black President | website=Discogs | date=1981 }}

Following the release, Fela performed his first European tour

(4 concerts in a week) with a suite of 70 people. The tour starting in Paris on March 15, 1981, with a huge crowd estimated at 10000 people,{{cite news | url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1981/03/16/fela-anikulapo-kuti-a-l-hippodrome-de-paris_2712170_1819218.html | title=Fela Anikulapo Kuti à l'Hippodrome de Paris | newspaper=Le Monde.fr | date=16 March 1981 }} then Brussels, Wien and Strasbourg. "Black President was followed by another album was recorded in Paris in july 1981: "Original Sufferhead",{{cite web | url=https://www.discogs.com/fr/release/10150757-Fel%C3%A1-Anik%C5%A9lapo-Kuti-Original-Sufferhead | title=Felá Anikũlapo-Kuti - Original Sufferhead | website=Discogs | date=1982 }} with "Power Show" on the B-side. Fela also recorded the track "Perambulator" in Paris.

Arista gave his back freedom to Fela at the end of 1981.{{cite web | url=https://musique.rfi.fr/musique-africaine/20170801-fela-kuti-france-meissonnier-kertekian | title=Fela Kuti, une histoire française | date=August 2017 }}

French Filmmaker Jean Jacques Flori came to Lagos early 1982 to direct the now classic film "Music is a Weapon". The filmed was broadcast first on Antenne 2 (french TV in 1982). The film producer Stephane Tchalgaldjieff didn't like the film and decided to re edit it for an international release.{{cite web | url=https://felakuti.com/eu/products/142320-music-is-the-weapon/20413315-dvd | title=Music is the Weapon }} "V.I.P. (Vagabonds in Power)" and "Authority Stealing" were released in 1980, with the former being a live performance done in Berlin, West Germany.

In 1983, Kuti nominated himself for president in Nigeria's first elections in decades, but his candidature was refused. At this time, Kuti created a new band, Egypt 80, which reflected the view that Egyptian civilization, knowledge, philosophy, mathematics, and religious systems are African and must be claimed as such. Kuti stated in an interview: "Stressing the point that I have to make Africans aware of the fact that Egyptian civilization belongs to the African. So that was the reason why I changed the name of my band to Egypt 80."Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/gFY-6x1qTzU Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140319145405/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFY-6x1qTzU Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFY-6x1qTzU |title=Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 Arsenal TV3 Catalonian TV 1987-08-04 |date=9 October 2013 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=2020-05-01}}{{cbignore}} Kuti continued to record albums and tour the country. He further infuriated the political establishment by implicating ITT Corporation's vice-president, Moshood Abiola, and Obasanjo in the popular 25-minute political screed entitled "I.T.T. (International Thief-Thief)".

In 1984, Muhammadu Buhari's government, of which Kuti was a vocal opponent, jailed him on a charge of currency smuggling. Amnesty International and others denounced the charges as politically motivated.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/feb/15/guardianobituaries.mainsection |location=London |work=The Guardian |first=Shola |last=Adenekan |title=Obituary: Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti |date=15 February 2006}} Amnesty designated him a prisoner of conscience,{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10097 |title=Success stories |publisher=Amnesty International |access-date=9 June 2012}} and other human rights groups also took up his case. After 20 months, General Ibrahim Babangida released him from prison. On his release, Kuti divorced his 12 remaining wives, citing "marriage brings jealousy and selfishness" since his wives would regularly compete for superiority.{{cite journal |last1=Ayobade |first1=Dotun |title='We Were On Top of the World': Fela Kuti's Queens and the Poetics of Space |journal=Journal of African Cultural Studies |date=2019 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=24–39 |doi=10.1080/13696815.2017.1400954 |s2cid=194782043 }}

Kuti continued to release albums with Egypt 80 and toured in the United States and Europe while continuing to be politically active. In 1986, he performed in Giants Stadium in New Jersey as part of Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope concert along with Bono, Carlos Santana, and the Neville Brothers. In 1989, Kuti and Egypt 80 released the anti-apartheid album Beasts of No Nation that depicted U.S. President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and South African State President Pieter Willem Botha on its cover. The title of the composition evolved out of a statement by Botha: "This uprising [against the apartheid system] will bring out the beast in us."

Kuti's album output slowed in the 1990s, and eventually, he ceased releasing albums altogether. On 21 January 1993,{{Cite web|last=Akinyemi|first=Oluwamayowa|title=NOSTALGIA: 28 Years Ago Today, Fela Kuti Was Arrested On Suspicion Of Murder - A New Touch of Africa|url=https://anewtouchofafrica.com/nostalgia-28-years-ago-today-fela-kuti-was-arrested-on-suspicion-of-murder/|access-date=2021-01-24|language=en-US}} he and four members of Africa 70 were arrested and were later charged on 25 January for the murder of an electrician.{{Cite news|date=1993-01-25|title=NIGERIAN MUSICIAN FELA CHARGED WITH MURDER|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/01/26/nigerian-musician-fela-charged-with-murder/53f09d58-3ad4-47c3-b6e6-8b2fd2b21643/|access-date=2021-01-24 }} Rumours also speculated that he was suffering from an illness for which he was refusing treatment. However, there had been no confirmed statement from Kuti about this speculation.

On 3 August 1997, Kuti's brother Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, already a prominent AIDS activist {{cite journal |last1=Adewole |first1=Isaac F. |title=Olikoye Ransome-Kuti: Nigeria's outstanding Minister of Health: A tribute |journal=African Journal of Reproductive Health / La Revue Africaine de la Santé Reproductive |date=2003 |volume=27, No. 5s |issue=Special Edition in honor of Late Profesor Olikoye Ransome Kuti (May 2023) |pages=27–30 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27250235#:~:text=In%201986%2C%20he%20announced%20Nigeria's,in%20the%20Nigeria's%20healthcare%20system.}} and former Minister of Health, announced that Kuti had died on the previous day from heart failure due to complications with AIDS.{{cite news|last1=David |first1=Herszenhorn |title=Fela, 58, Dissident Nigerian Musician, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/04/arts/fela-58-dissident-nigerian-musician-dies.html |newspaper=New York Times |date=4 August 1997 |access-date=12 March 2025}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/08/04/nigerian-musician-fela-anikulapo-kuti-dies/54641ca2-e236-4687-a262-b2e86c535e73/|title=NIGERIAN MUSICIAN FELA ANIKULAPO-KUTI DIES|newspaper=Washington Post|date=August 4, 1997}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-04-mn-19298-story.html|title=Fela Anikulapo Kuti; Nigerian Musician|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=August 4, 1997}} Kuti had been an AIDS denialist, and his widow maintained that he did not die of the disease.{{Cite web|url=https://dailytimes.ng/fela-did-not-die-of-aids-widow-insists/|title=Fela Did Not Die of AIDS, Widow Insists|date=29 March 2015|website=Daily Times Nigeria}}{{Cite book|title=The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature|last=See: Washington|first=Teresa N.|publisher=Oya's Tornado|year=2014|isbn=978-0991073016|pages=285n105}}

Kuti married 27 women simultaneously in 1978.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-22 |title=The Untold story of how Fela Kuti married 27 women same day |url=https://www.graphic.com.gh/entertainment/showbiz-news/the-untold-story-of-how-fela-kuti-married-27-women-same-day-2.html |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Graphic Online |language=en-gb}} His youngest son Seun took the role of leading Kuti's former band Egypt 80. {{As of|2022}}, the band is still active, releasing music under the name Seun Kuti & Egypt 80.{{cite web |title=Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 {{!}} Biography & History |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/seun-kuti-egypt-80-mn0000999542/biography |access-date=2020-09-06 |website=AllMusic |language=en-us}} His other children include musicians Femi and Yeni Kuti.{{Cite web |last=Osiebe |first=Garhe |date=2020-08-20 |title=The daughters and sons of Fela in African Pop |url=https://theconversation.com/the-daughters-and-sons-of-fela-in-african-pop-138739 |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}

{{main|Afrobeat}}File:James Brown Live Hamburg 1973 1702730029.jpg was an important American influence on Kuti's musical style.|left]]

Kuti's musical style is called Afrobeat.{{cite web | url=https://theculturetrip.com/africa/nigeria/articles/fela-kuti-s-afrobeat-legacy/ | title=Fela Kuti and the Legacy of Afrobeat | date=22 May 2012 }} It is a style he largely created, and is a complex fusion of jazz, funk, highlife, and traditional Nigerian and African chants and rhythms. It contains elements of Afro-Cuban music, psychedelic soul and has similarities to James Brown's music. Afrobeat also borrows heavily from the native "tinker pan".As Iwedi Ojinmah points out in his article "Baba is Dead – Long Live Baba," Tony Allen, Kuti's drummer of twenty years, was instrumental in the creation of Afrobeat. Tony Allen's drumming notably makes sparing use of 2 & 4 backbeat style playing, instead opting for outlining the time in shuffling hard-bop fashion, while maintaining a strong downbeat, often with a double kick-drum hit on the 1. There are clear, audible musical similarities between Kuti's compositions and the work of electric-era Miles Davis, Sly Stone and Afrofunk pioneer Orlando Julius, as well as the approach to modality pioneered by Davis and Coltrane, as expressed in the funk idiom.

Kuti's band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones when most groups only used one. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles and can be seen in funk and hip hop. There were always two or more guitarists. The electric West African style guitar in Afrobeat bands is a key part of the sound, and is used to give basic structure, playing a repeating chordal/melodic statement, riff, or groove.

Some elements often present in Kuti's music are the call-and-response within the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. His songs were also very long, at least 10–15 minutes in length, and many reached 20 or 30 minutes, while some unreleased tracks would last up to 45 minutes when performed live. Their length was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside Africa. His LP records frequently had one 30-minute track per side. Typically there is an "instrumental introduction" jam section of the song roughly 10–15 minutes long before Kuti starts singing the "main" part of the song, featuring his lyrics and singing, for another 10–15 minutes. On some recordings, his songs are divided into two parts: Part 1 being the instrumental, and Part 2 adding in vocals.

Kuti's songs are mostly sung in Nigerian Pidgin English, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language. His main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards, but he also played the trumpet, electric guitar, and the occasional drum solo. Kuti refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which hindered his popularity outside Africa{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}.

The subject of Kuti's songs tended to be very complex. They regularly challenged common received notions in the manner of political commentary through song. Many of his songs also expressed a form of parody and satire. The main theme he conveyed through his music was the search for justice through exploration of political and social topics that affected the common people.{{Citation |last=Olorunyomi |first=Sola |title=1. Tradition and Afrobeat |date=2013-04-03 |url=http://books.openedition.org/ifra/522 |work=Afrobeat! : Fela and the Imagined Continent |pages=1–32 |series=African Dynamics |place=Ibadan |publisher=IFRA-Nigeria |isbn=979-10-92312-07-2 |access-date=2022-12-04}}

Kuti was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often outlandish and wild. He referred to his stage act as the "Underground Spiritual Game". Many expected him to perform shows like those in the Western world, but during the 1980s, he was not interested in putting on a "show". His European performance was a representation of what was relevant at the time and his other inspirations. He attempted to make a movie but lost all the materials to the fire that was set to his house by the military government in power.{{cite news |last1=Darnton |first1=John |title=NIGERIA'S DISSIDENT SUPERSTAR |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/07/24/archives/nigerias-dissident-superstar-fela.html |work=The New York Times |date=24 July 1977 }} He thought that art, and thus his own music, should have political meaning.

Kuti's concerts also regularly involved female singers and dancers, later dubbed as "Queens." The Queens were women who helped influence the popularization of his music. They were dressed colorfully and wore makeup all over their bodies that expressed their visual creativity. The singers of the group played a backup role for Kuti, usually echoing his words or humming along, while the dancers would put on a performance of an erotic manner. This began to spark controversy due to the nature of their involvement with Kuti's political tone, along with the reality that a lot of the women were young.

Kuti was part of an Afrocentric consciousness movement that was founded on and delivered through his music. In an interview included in Hank Bordowitz's Noise of the World, Kuti stated:

Music is supposed to have an effect. If you're playing music and people don't feel something, you're not doing shit. That's what African music is about. When you hear something, you must move. I want to move people to dance, but also to think. Music wants to dictate a better life, against a bad life. When you're listening to something that depicts having a better life, and you're not having a better life, it must have an effect on you.{{cite book |last1=Bordowitz |first1=Hank |title=Noise of the World: Non-Western Musicians In Their Own Words |date=2004 |publisher=Soft Skull Press |location=Canada |page=170}}

Kuti was highly engaged in political activism in Africa from the 1970s until his death. He criticized the corruption of Nigerian government officials and the mistreatment of Nigerian citizens. He spoke of colonialism as the root of the socio-economic and political problems that plagued the African people. Corruption was one of the worst political problems facing Africa in the 1970s and Nigeria was among the most corrupt countries. Its government rigged elections and performed coups that ultimately worsened poverty, economic inequality, unemployment, and political instability, further promoting corruption and crime. Kuti's protest songs covered themes inspired by the realities of corruption and socio-economic inequality in Africa. Kuti's political statements could be heard throughout Africa.

Kuti's open vocalization of the violent and oppressive regime controlling Nigeria did not come without consequence. He was arrested on over 200 different occasions and spent time in jail, including his longest stint of 20 months after his arrest in 1984. On top of jail time, the corrupt government sent soldiers to beat Kuti, his family and friends, and destroy wherever he lived and whatever instruments or recordings he had.{{Cite web|date=2017-08-03|title=20 years after Fela's death, his music, lifestyle and influence lives on » YNaija|url=https://naija.yafri.ca/20-years-after-felas-death-his-music-lifestyle-and-influence-lives-on/|access-date=2021-01-20|website=YNaija|language=en-GB}}

In the 1970s, Kuti began to run outspoken political columns in the advertising space of daily and weekly newspapers such as The Daily Times and The Punch, bypassing editorial censorship in Nigeria's predominantly state-controlled media.This section includes material copied verbatim from [http://www.chimurengalibrary.co.za/periodicals.php?id=17 "Chief Priest Say"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804141056/http://www.chimurengalibrary.co.za/periodicals.php?id=17 |date=4 August 2008}}, at chimurenga library.co.za, released under GFDL. Published throughout the 1970s and early 1980s under the title "Chief Priest Say", these columns were extensions of Kuti's famous Yabi Sessions—consciousness-raising word-sound rituals, with himself as chief priest, conducted at his Lagos nightclub. Organized around a militantly Afrocentric rendering of history and the essence of black beauty, "Chief Priest Say" focused on the role of cultural hegemony in the continuing subjugation of Africans. Kuti addressed many topics, from fierce denunciations of the Nigerian Government's criminal behavior, Islam and Christianity's exploitative nature, and evil multinational corporations; to deconstructions of Western medicine, Black Muslims, sex, pollution, and poverty. "Chief Priest Say" was eventually canceled by The Daily Times and The Punch. Many have speculated that the paper's editors were pressured to stop publication, including threats of violence.{{Cite web |last=Reporters |first=Greenbarge |date=2015-10-15 |title=The Legend Lives On: Profile Of Fela Anikulapo Kuti At Birthday Today |url=https://greenbreporters.com/art-entertainment/the-legend-lives-on-profile-of-fela-anikulapo-kuti-at-birthday-today.html/amp |access-date=2024-09-09 |website=Greenbarge Reporters |language=en-US}}

{{quote box

| align = right

| width = 25em

| quote = "Imagine Che Guevara and Bob Marley rolled into one person and you get a sense of Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti."

| source = —Herald Sun, February 2011Blanche Clarke, [http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/man-of-beats-brings-a-message-with-him/story-e6frf96f-1225999739892 "Man of Beats Brings a Message with him"], Herald Sun, 4 February 2011.

}}

Kuti's lyrics expressed his inner thoughts. His rise in popularity throughout the 1970s signalled a change in the relation between music as an art form and Nigerian socio-political discourse.{{cite journal |last=Shonekan |first=Stephanie |date=1 January 2009 |title=Fela's Foundation: Examining the Revolutionary Songs of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and the Abeokuta Market Women's Movement in 1940s Western Nigeria |jstor=20640673 |journal=Black Music Research Journal |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=127–144}} In 1984, he critiqued and insulted the authoritarian then-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/apr/01/nigerias-new-president-muhammadu-buhari-is-the-man-who-put-fela-kuti-in-jail |title=Nigeria's new president Muhammadu Buhari – the man who jailed Fela Kuti |last=Denselow |first=Robin |date=1 April 2015 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en-GB |access-date=4 October 2016}} "Beast of No Nation", one of his most popular songs, refers to Buhari as an "animal in a madman's body"; in Nigerian Pidgin: "No be outside Buhari dey ee / na craze man be dat / animal in craze man skini." Kuti strongly believed in Africa and always preached peace among its people. He thought the most important way for them to fight European cultural imperialism was to support traditional religions and lifestyles in their continent. The American Black Power movement also influenced Kuti's political views; he supported Pan-Africanism and socialism and called for a united, democratic African republic.{{cite journal |last=Stewart |first=Alexander |date=5 December 2013 |title=Make It Funky: Fela Kuti, James Brown and the Invention of Afrobeat |journal=American Studies |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=99–118 |doi=10.1353/ams.2013.0124 |s2cid=145682238 |url=http://journals.ku.edu/amerstud/article/view/4463 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-hCBAAAQBAJ&q=fela+democratic+african+republic&pg=PT157 |title=Suffering, Art, and Aesthetics |last1=Hadj-Moussa |first1=R. |last2=Nijhawan |first2=M. |date=9 July 2014 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9781137426086}} African leaders he supported during his lifetime include Kwame Nkrumah and Thomas Sankara. Kuti was a candid supporter of human rights, and many of his songs are direct attacks against dictatorships, specifically the militaristic governments of Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He also criticized fellow Africans (especially the upper class) for betraying traditional African culture.

In 1978 Kuti became a polygamist when he simultaneously married 27 women.{{cite book |last=Collins |first=John |title=Fela: Kalakuta Notes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CmBcCAAAQBAJ |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |date=5 June 2015 |isbn=9780819575401}}{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Carlos |last2=Gil |first2=Gilberto |title=Fela: This Bitch of a Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbMDyvjYIyMC |publisher=Chicago Review Press |date=1982 |isbn=9781556528354}} The highly publicized wedding served many purposes: it marked the one-year anniversary of Kuti and his wives surviving the Nigerian government's attack on the Kalakuta Republic in 1977,{{Cite book|last=Washington|first=Teresa N.|title=The Architects of Existence: Aje in Yoruba Cosmology, Ontology, and Orature|publisher=Oya's Tornado|year=2014|isbn=978-0991073016|pages=218}} and also formalized Kuti's relationships with the women living with him; this legal status prevented the Nigerian government from raiding Kuti's compound on the grounds that Kuti had kidnapped the women. Kuti also described polygamy as logical and convenient: "A man goes for many women in the first place. Like in Europe, when a man is married when the wife is sleeping, he goes out and sleeps around. He should bring the women in the house, man, to live with him, and stop running around the streets!"{{cite web|url=https://www.naijatab.com/ |title=Naija News |publisher=NaijaTab.com |access-date=1 October 2011}} Some characterize his views towards women as misogyny and typically cite songs like "Mattress" as further evidence.{{cite web |url=http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v2i1/STAN.HTM |title=Fela and His Wives: The Import of a Postcolonial Masculinity |work=Jouvert |publisher=english.chass.ncsu.edu |access-date=16 March 2010 |year=1998 |last=Stanovsky |first=Derek |archive-date=17 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100617103741/http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v2i1/STAN.HTM |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |last1=Olaniyan |first1=Tejumola |title=The Cosmopolitan Nativist: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and the Antinomies of Postcolonial Modernity |journal=Research in African Literatures |date=June 2001 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=76–89 |id={{Project MUSE|29585}} |doi=10.2979/RAL.2001.32.2.76 |s2cid=161060935 }} In a more complex example, he mocks African women's aspiration to European standards of ladyhood while extolling the values of the market woman in "Lady". However, Kuti also critiqued what he considered aberrant displays of African masculinity. In his songs "J.J.D. (Johnny Just Drop)" and "Gentleman", Kuti mocks African men's culturally and politically inappropriate adoption of European standards and declares himself "African man: Original".

Kuti was also an outspoken critic of the United States. At a meeting during his 1981 Amsterdam tour, he "complained about the psychological warfare that American organizations like ITT and the CIA waged against developing nations in terms of language". Because terms such as Third World, undeveloped, or non-aligned countries imply inferiority, Kuti felt they should not be used.

File:Fela_New_Shrine,_Lagos_02.jpg, Lagos]]

Kuti is remembered as an influential icon who voiced his opinions on matters that affected the nation through his music. Since 1998, the Felabration festival, an idea pioneered by his daughter Yeni Kuti,{{cite web|url=https://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2019/09/22/felabration-2019-how-we-came-about-the-theme-from-lagos-with-love-yeni-kuti/|title=Felabration 2019: How We Came About the Theme, 'From Lagos, With Love!' – Yeni Kuti|website=The News|date=22 September 2019|access-date=6 November 2021}} is held each year at the New Afrika Shrine to celebrate the life of this music legend and his birthday. Since Kuti's death in 1997, there has been a revival of his influence in music and popular culture, culminating in another re-release of his catalog controlled by UMG, Broadway, and off-Broadway shows, and new bands, such as Antibalas, who carry the Afrobeat banner to a new generation of listeners.

In 1999, Universal Music France, under Francis Kertekian, remastered the 45 albums that it owned and released them on 26 compact discs. These titles were licensed globally, except in Nigeria and Japan, where other companies owned Kuti's music. In 2005, the American operations of UMG licensed all of its world-music titles to the UK-based label Wrasse Records, which repackaged the same 26 discs for distribution in the United States (where they replaced the titles issues by MCA) and the UK. In 2009, Universal created a new deal for the US and Europe, with Knitting Factory Records and PIAS respectively, which included the release of the Broadway cast recording of the musical Fela! In 2013, FKO Ltd., the entity that owned the rights to all of Kuti's compositions, was acquired by BMG Rights Management.

In 2003, the Black President exhibition debuted at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York, and featured concerts, symposia, films, and 39 international artists' works.[http://archive.newmuseum.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_id/403 "Black President: the Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti"], New Museum Digital Archive.{{cite web|url=http://bombmagazine.org/article/5518/black-president-the-art-and-legacy-of-fela-anikulapo-kuti-new-museum-of-contemporary-art|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110172858/http://bombmagazine.org/article/5518/black-president-the-art-and-legacy-of-fela-anikulapo-kuti-new-museum-of-contemporary-art|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 November 2014|title=—Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, New Museum of Contemporary Art|author=Koirala, Snigdha|website=BOMB Magazine|access-date=29 November 2016}}

American singer Bilal recorded a remake of Kuti's 1977 song "Sorrow Tears and Blood" for his second album, Love for Sale, featuring a guest rap by Common. Bilal cited Kuti's mix of jazz and folk tastes as an influence on his music.{{cite interview |subject=Bilal |interviewer=Alex Nagshineh |date=May 9, 2011 |url=http://www.bonafidemag.com/bilal-interview-bonafide-exclusive/ |title=Bilal Interview – Bonafide Exclusive |magazine=Bonafide Magazine |access-date=August 5, 2020}}

The 2007 film The Visitor, directed by Thomas McCarthy, depicted a disconnected professor (Richard Jenkins) who wanted to play the djembe; he learns from a young Syrian (Haaz Sleiman) who tells the professor he will never truly understand African music unless he listens to Fela. The film features clips of Kuti's "Open and Close" and "Je'nwi Temi (Don't Gag Me)".

File:Antibalas afrobeat orchestra.jpg in 2005]]

In 2008, an off-Broadway production about Kuti's life, entitled Fela! and inspired by the 1982 biography Fela, Fela! This Bitch of a Life by Carlos Moore,{{cite web |url=http://gregorybossler.com/topics/shows/fela-review-roundup |author=Bossler, Gregory| title=Fela!: Review Roundup|publisher=Gregorybossler.com |date=13 July 2012 |access-date=27 January 2013}}{{cite web |author=Reedy, R. Scott |url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/marshfield/fun/entertainment/arts/x1942573570/THEATER-REVIEW-Theatergoers-can-t-stay-in-their-seats-during-Fela#axzz22GB2xo7j |title=Theatergoers can't stay in their seats during 'Fela!' |publisher=Marshfield Mariner |date=3 May 2012 |access-date=27 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115100513/http://www.wickedlocal.com/marshfield/fun/entertainment/arts/x1942573570/THEATER-REVIEW-Theatergoers-can-t-stay-in-their-seats-during-Fela#axzz22GB2xo7j |archive-date=15 January 2013 |df=dmy-all}} began with a collaborative workshop between the Afrobeat band Antibalas and Tony award-winner Bill T. Jones. The production was a massive success, and sold-out performances during its run and gained critical acclaim. On 22 November 2009, Fela! began a run on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. Jim Lewis helped co-write the script (along with Jones) and obtained producer backing from Jay-Z and Will Smith, among others. On 4 May 2010, Fela! was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Bill T. Jones, Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Sahr Ngaujah, and Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Lillias White.{{cite web |url=http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/shows/201004241272141059439.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509020130/http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/shows/201004241272141059439.html |url-status=dead |title=Tony Award Nominations, 2010 |archive-date=9 May 2010}} In 2011, the London production of Fela! (staged at the Royal National Theatre) was filmed. On 11 June 2012, it was announced that Fela! would return to Broadway for 32 performances.{{cite magazine |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/166944-Fela-Will-Play-Limited-Summer-Return-Engagement-on-Broadway |author=Gans, Andrew, and Adam Hetrick |title=Fela! Will Play Limited Summer Return Engagement on Broadway |magazine=Playbill |access-date=21 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130103150105/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/166944-Fela-Will-Play-Limited-Summer-Return-Engagement-on-Broadway |archive-date=3 January 2013 |df=dmy-all}}

On 18 August 2009, DJ J.Period released a free mixtape to the general public, entitled The Messengers. It is a collaboration with Somali-born hip-hop artist K'naan paying tribute to Kuti, Bob Marley, and Bob Dylan.

Two months later, Knitting Factory Records began re-releasing the 45 titles controlled by UMG, starting with yet another re-release in the US of the compilation The Best of the Black President, which was completed and released in 2013.{{Cite web|last=Chick|first=Stevie|date=2013-03-04|title=BBC - Music - Review of Fela Kuti - The Best of the Black President 2|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/26b6/|access-date=2021-01-28|website=BBC|language=en-GB}}

Fela Son of Kuti: The Fall of Kalakuta is a stage play written by Onyekaba Cornel Best in 2010. It has had triumphant acclaim as part of that year's Felabration and returned in 2014 at the National Theatre and Freedom Park in Lagos. The play deals with events in a hideout, a day after the fall of Kalakuta.

The full-length documentary film Finding Fela, directed by Alex Gibney, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

File:Fela Anikulakpo-kuti, off Allen roundabout, Lagos.jpg]]

A biographical film by Focus Features, directed by Steve McQueen and written by Biyi Bandele, was rumoured to be in production in 2010, with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the lead role.{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2010/05/as-fela-lands-11-tony-noms-pic-on-the-musicianactivist-signs-chiwetel-ejiofor-38010/ |author=Mike Fleming Jr |title=As 'Fela!' Lands 11 Tony Noms, Pic On The Musician/Activist Signs Chiwetel Ejiofor |publisher=Deadline Hollywood |date=4 May 2010 |access-date=27 January 2021}} However, by 2014, the proposal was no longer produced under Focus Features, and while he maintained his role as the main writer, McQueen was replaced by Andrew Dosunmu as the director. McQueen told The Hollywood Reporter that the film was "dead".{{Cite web|last1=Ginsberg|first1=Merle|last2=Baum|first2=Gary|date=2014-01-09|title=Fela Kuti Biopic Soldiers On, Without Steve McQueen or Focus Features|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fela-kuti-biopic-soldiers-steve-669532|access-date=2021-01-28|website=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en}}

The 2019 documentary film My Friend Fela (Meu amigo Fela) by Joel Zito Araújo, explores the complexity of Kuti's life "through the eyes and conversations" of his biographer Carlos Moore.[https://iffr.com/en/2019/films/my-friend-fela "My Friend Fela"], IFFR.

The collaborative jazz/afrobeat album Rejoice by Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela, released in 2020, includes the track "Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be the Same)", a tribute to Kuti, through whom Allen and Masekela first met in the 1970s.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/19/tony-allen-afrobeats-master-on-hugh-masekela-damon-albarn-and-friction-with-fela-kuti|title=Tony Allen: Afrobeat's master on Hugh Masekela, Damon Albarn and friction with Fela Kuti|first=Robin|last=Denselow|author-link=Robin Denselow|newspaper=The Guardian|date=19 March 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.okayafrica.com/afrobeat-tony-allen-hugh-masekela-never-lagos-gonna-be-the-same-listen/|title=Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela Pay Tribute to Fela In 'Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same)'|author=Music News|website=OkayAfrica|date=23 March 2020 |access-date=6 November 2021}}

Kuti's songs "Zombie" & "Sorrow Tears and Blood" has appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: IV, and he was posthumously nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.{{Cite web|title=Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige, Tina Turner Among 16 Nominees For Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966298198/jay-z-mary-j-blige-tina-turner-among-16-nominees-for-rock-roll-hall-of-fame|access-date=2021-02-11|website=NPR|date=10 February 2021 |language=en|last1=Harris |first1=Latesha }}

In 2021, Hulu released a six-episode documentary miniseries, McCartney 3,2,1, in which Paul McCartney is quoted as saying of a visit to see Fela Kuti at the African Shrine, Kuti's club outside of Lagos, in the early 1970s: "The music was so incredible that I wept. Hearing that was one of the greatest music moments of my life."Ruggieri, Melissa. "Paul recalls The Beatles' 'laboratory'", USA Today, Monday, 19 July 2021, p. 7B.

On 1 November 2021, a blue plaque was unveiled by the Nubian Jak Community Trust at 12 Stanlake Road, Shepherd's Bush, where Kuti first lived when he came to London in 1958 and was studying music at Trinity College.{{cite web|url=https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/articles/news/2021/11/afrobeat-legend-fela-kuti-honoured-blue-plaque-shepherds-bush|title=Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti honoured with blue plaque in Shepherds Bush|date=3 November 2021|website=H&F (Hammersmith & Fulham)|access-date=4 November 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-news/2021/11/04/fela-kuti-honoured-with-blue-plaque-at-former-london-home/|title=Fela Kuti honoured with Blue Plaque at former London home|website=The Voice|date=4 November 2021|access-date=5 November 2021}} The event included tributes from Kuti's daughter Shalewa Ransome-Kuti, Resonance FM broadcaster Debbie Golt, Kuti's former manager Rikki Stein, cover artist Lemi Ghariokwu, and others.{{cite web|url=https://africanvoiceonline.co.uk/another-fela-kuti-plaque-unveiled-in-london/|title=Another Fela Kuti Plaque unveiled in London|first=Eugene|last=Smith|website=African Voice|date=3 November 2021|access-date=7 November 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://chiswickherald.co.uk/new-blue-plaque-honours-local-afrobeat-legend-p13823-313.htm|title=New Blue Plaque Honours Local Afrobeat Legend|work=The Chiswick Herald|author=|date=4 November 2021|access-date=7 November 2021|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107125519/https://chiswickherald.co.uk/new-blue-plaque-honours-local-afrobeat-legend-p13823-313.htm|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/africa/Fela-Kuti-godfather-of-Afrobeat-honoured-with-a-blue-heritage-plaque-in-London-England-1392583|title=Fela Kuti, godfather of Afrobeat, honoured with a blue heritage plaque in London, England|first=Afrikatu Kofi|last=Nkrumah|website=GhanaWeb|date=1 November 2021|access-date=7 November 2021|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107125505/https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/africa/Fela-Kuti-godfather-of-Afrobeat-honoured-with-a-blue-heritage-plaque-in-London-England-1392583|url-status=dead}}

In 2022, Kuti was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.{{Cite magazine|last=Conteh|first=Mankaprr|date=2022-02-22|title=More Excellence: Snoop Dogg, Fela Kuti, Berry Gordy Honored at Atlanta's Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fame|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-pictures/black-music-and-entertainment-walk-fame-atlanta-induction-1302579/|access-date=2022-02-22|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}} In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Kuti at number 188 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.{{cite magazine|title=The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=1 January 2023|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/fela-kuti-2-1234642341/|access-date=26 January 2023}}

{{main|Fela Kuti discography}}

;With Africa 70

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Fela Fela Fela (1970)
• Live! (with Ginger Baker) (1971)
• Fela's London Scene (1971)
• Why Black Man Dey Suffer (1971)
• Open & Close (1971)
• Na Poi (1971)
• Shakara (1972)
• Roforofo Fight (1972)
• Afrodisiac (1973)
• Gentleman (1973)
• Alagbon Close (1974)
• Noise for Vendor Mouth (1975)
• Confusion (1975)
• Everything Scatter (1975)
• Expensive Shit (1975)
• He Miss Road (1975)
• Unnecessary Begging (1976)
• Kalakuta Show (1976)
• Upside Down (1976)
• Ikoyi Blindness (1976)
• Before I Jump Like Monkey Give Me Banana (1976)
• Excuse-O (1976)
• Yellow Fever (1976)
• Zombie (1977)
• Stalemate (1977)
• No Agreement (1977)
• Sorrow Tears and Blood (1977)
• J.J.D. (Johnny Just Drop!!) (1977)
• Shuffering and Shmiling (1978)
• Unknown Soldier (1979)
• V.I.P. (Vagabonds in Power) (1979)
• I.T.T. (International Thief Thief) (1980)
• Music of Many Colours (1980) (with Roy Ayers)
• Authority Stealing (1980)
• Coffin for Head of State (1981)
• I Go Shout Plenty!!! (1986, recorded in 1976)

;With Egypt 80

• Original Sufferhead (1981)
• Perambulator (1983)
• Live in Amsterdam (1983)
• Army Arrangement (1985)
• Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense (1986)
• Beasts of No Nation (1989)
• Confusion Break Bones (1990)
• O.D.O.O. (Overtake Don Overtake Overtake) (1990)
• Underground System (1992)
• Live in Detroit 1986 (2010)

;Compilations

• The Best Best of Fela Kuti (1999)
• The Underground Spiritual Game (2004)
• Lagos Baby 1963 to 1969 (2008)
• The Best of the Black President 2 (2013)

{{div col end}}

• Arena - Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat,2020 Plimsoll MamaPut Film for BBC{{Cite web |title=BBC Four - Arena, Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pr2n |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
• My Friend Fela, 2019, Joel Zito Araújo (Casa de Criação Cinema)
• Finding Fela, 2014, Alex Gibney and Jack Gulick (Jigsaw Productions)
• Femi Kuti — Live at the Shrine, 2005, recorded live in Lagos, Nigeria (Palm Pictures)
• Fela Live! Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and the Egypt '80 Band, 1984, recorded live at Glastonbury, England (Yazoo){{Cite web |title=BBC Music - Glastonbury, 2021, Fela Kuti at Glastonbury 1984 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xh3n |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
• Fela Kuti: Teacher Don't Teach Me Nonsense & Berliner Jazztage '78 (Double Feature), 1984 (Lorber Films)
• Fela in Concert, 1981 (VIEW)
• Music Is the Weapon, 1982, Stéphane Tchalgadjieff and Jean-Jacques Flori (Universal Music)

Notes

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Alimi |first1=Shina |last2=Anthony |first2=Iroju Opeyemi |title=No agreement today, no agreement tomorrow: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and human rights activism in Nigeria |journal=Journal of Pan African Studies |date=15 September 2013 |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=74–95 |id={{Gale|A356354162}} |url=https://jpanafrican.org/docs/vol6no4/6.4-ready5.pdf }}
• {{Cite book|author=Bordowitz, Hank|title=Noise of the World:Non-Western Musicians In Their Own Words|publisher=Soft Skull Press|year=2004|id=Canada}}
• Chude, Olisaemeka (11 November 2015), [http://ayibamagazine.com/lets-keep-felabrating/ "Let's keep felabrating"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231090246/http://ayibamagazine.com/lets-keep-felabrating/ |date=31 December 2021 }}, Ayiba magazine
• {{Cite book|author=Idowu, Mabinuori Kayode|title=Fela, le Combattant|publisher=Le Castor Astral|year=2002|id=France}}
• {{Cite book|author=Moore, Carlos|title=Fela, Fela! This Bitch of a Life|publisher=Allison & Busby|year=1982|id=UK}} (Authorised biography). New edition Chicago Review Press, 2009 (with Introduction by Margaret Busby and foreword by Gilberto Gil); Nigerian edition Cassava Republic Press (with Prologue by Lindsay Barrett).
• {{cite journal |last1=Ogunyemi |first1=Christopher Babatunde |title=Fela Kuti's Black consciousness: African cosmology and the re-configuration of Blackness in 'colonial mentality' |journal=African Identities |date=2 October 2021 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=487–501 |doi=10.1080/14725843.2020.1803793 |s2cid=225491880 }}
• {{Cite book|author=Olorunyomi, Sola|title=Afrobeat: Fela and the Imagined Continent|publisher=Africa World Press|year=2002|id=USA}}
• {{Cite book|author=Olaniyan, Tejumola|title=Arrest the Music! Fela and his Rebel Art and Politics|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2004|id=USA}}
• {{Cite book|editor=Schoonmaker, Trevor|title=Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2003|id=USA}}
• {{Cite book|editor=Schoonmaker, Trevor|title=Black President: The Art & Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti|publisher=New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York|year=2003|isbn=0-915557-87-8}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Sithole |first1=Tendayi |title=Fela Kuti and the oppositional lyrical power |journal=Muziki |date=July 2012 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1080/18125980.2012.737101 |s2cid=142993486 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=Alexander |title=Make It Funky: Fela Kuti, James Brown and the Invention of Afrobeat |journal=American Studies |date=2013 |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=99–118 |id={{Gale|A426625632}} {{Project MUSE|528297}} {{ProQuest|1498087584}} |doi=10.1353/ams.2013.0124 |jstor=24589271 |s2cid=145682238 |url=http://journals.ku.edu/amerstud/article/view/4463 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• {{Cite book|author=Veal, Michael E.|title=Fela: The Life of an African Musical Icon|publisher=Temple University Press|year=1997|id=USA}}
• Wilmer, Val (September 2011), "Fela Kuti in London", in The Wire, No. 331.

{{sister project links|d=Q313868|c=Category:Fela Kuti|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}

• {{Official website|http://felakuti.com/}}
• {{allMusic|class=artist|id=mn0000138833}}
• {{Discogs artist}}
• {{IMDb name|1324034}}
• Alex Hannaford, [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/25/popandrock.worldmusic "'He was in a godlike state'"], The Guardian, 25 July 2007.
• [https://worldmusiccentral.org/2016/08/05/artist-profiles-fela-kuti/ Fela Kuti biography] at World Music Central; includes biography and discography

{{Fela Kuti}}

{{Pan-Africanism}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuti, Fela}}

Category:1938 births

Category:1997 deaths

Category:AIDS-related deaths in Nigeria

Category:Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Nigeria

Category:Capitol Records artists

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Category:Nigerian bandleaders

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Category:Alumni of Trinity College of Music

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Category:People educated at Abeokuta Grammar School

Category:Africa '70 members