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Fela Kuti
Ikoyi Blindness
Fela used the cover of Ikoyi Blindness to announce his change of middle name from Ransome, which he now considered a slave name, to Anikulapo, which means “he who carries death in his pouch.” The front cover shows Ransome crossed out and Anikulapo added above it. Fela also used the album cover to announce the Africanisation of Africa 70’s name, changing it to Afrika 70. In the title track, Fela draws attention to the economic chasm separating the haves and have-nots of Nigerian society, contrasting the get-rich-at-all-costs mindset of the residents of the prosperous Lagos suburb Ikoyi with the more community-minded attitude of the poor inhabitants of the Mushin, Maroko, Ajegunle and Somolu neighborhoods. Ikoyi residents are blind to the sufferings of less fortunate people, says Fela.Fela returns to the topic on the second track, “Gba Mi Leti Ki N’Dolowo (Slap Me Make I Get Money).” In Lagos in 1975 and 1976, there had been an upsurge in police and military personnel assaults on people in the street; motorists were commonly pulled out of their vehicles and given a whipping for minor traffic offenses. Scandalously, the police and soldiers were being allowed to get away with corruption in broad daylight. In the lyric, Fela demands that the judiciary administer the law equally, without fear or favor.
Knitting Factory Records
LP
Fela Kuti
Original Suffer Head
This edition of Original Sufferhead is a major event. With the release of box set #5, and now on this reissue, the title track of this magnificent album is presented in its full-length, 25 minutes 24 seconds glory. While preparing the master disc for the box set, our engineer Jedi, Colin Young, discovered four minutes of “lost” material on the B-side of the original pressing, including a superb keyboard solo by Fela. This had been omitted from subsequent reissues. The restored version used here starts and finishes with Fela’s keyboard work, a typically venturesome blend of futurism and visceralism.Original Sufferhead was the first album Fela released under Egypt 80’s name (he had disbanded Afrika 70 in 1979)On the title track, arguing from the personal to the political, Fela describes the inhuman treatment and poor living conditions experienced by working class Nigerians, the people he called sufferheads. In “Power Show,” Fela sings about the two-tier system dividing Nigerian society, in which the rich get treated one way and the poor another.
Knitting Factory Records
LP
Fela Kuti
Gentleman (50th Anniversary)
Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. A titanic musical and sociopolitical voice, Fela’s legacy spans decades and genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk, hip-hop, rock and beyond.1973’s Gentleman is the 7th in the series of celebratory Fela 50th Anniversary reissues. Like its predecessors in the series, this version will be available on exclusive colored vinyl (Igbo Smoke) and the LP will be wrapped in a gold foil obi strip with a brief essay on the album and Fela's global impact on music. Like Fela's other early 70's releases, he used each side of his LPs to create a deep groove that pulls the listener in and follows with metaphoric lyrics that call out and critique the corrupt hangover of colonialism.Gentleman is the last of Fela's early 1970s albums recorded with the Africa 70. The title track can be interpreted literally or as a metaphor concerning a wider issue. Fela deftly addresses the colonialism-induced, inferiority complex which led many in Africa's new governing elites to reject African style, concepts of beauty, and modes of behavior in favor of European imports. Gentleman's other tracks, ""Fefe Naa Efe"" and ""Igbe,” have more direct, less metaphorical lyrics. On ""Fefe Naa Efe,” an Ashanti motto from Ghana, Fela tells a woman dumped by her boyfriend that she must get over the heartache and move on. On ""Igbe”, Fela declares that anyone who betrays a friend is shit, and that anybody who lacks self-respect is shit - something you want to expel from your body as soon as possible. He sings the word ""shit"" in several Nigerian languages, so there is no misunderstanding.
Knitting Factory Records
LP
Fela Kuti
AFRODISIAC
Fela Kuti (1938-1997) was a Nigerian musician, producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. A titanic musical and sociopolitical voice, Fela’s legacy spans decades and genres, touching on jazz, pop, funk, hip-hop, rock and beyond.Afrodisiac is the fifth in the series of celebratory Fela 50th Anniversary reissues. Like its predecessors in the series, this double LP edition is on color vinyl; LP 1 is green marble and LP 2 is on red marble. The album will be wrapped in a gold foil OBI strip with a brief essay on the album and Fela's global impact on music. The songs on Afrodisiac were tracks that Fela and the Nigeria 70 (Later Africa 70) re-recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1972 after they had become hits in Nigeria. The best known song on the album, 'Jeun Ko Ku’, is listed by its Pidgin title ‘Chop and Quench’ on this album. It’s a satire about gluttony and Fela's first major hit across West Africa. ‘Chop and Quench’ means ""eat and die"" in Standard English.Afrodisiac was first reissued on vinyl in 2014 as part of the Fela Box Set #3 curated by Brian Eno. Eno played Afrodisiac for David Byrne and it was a huge influence on Talking Heads when they recorded Remain In Light -- there is a bonus track called ‘Fela's Riff’ that nods heavily to the influence of hearing Afrodisiac and Fela's music for the first time.
Knitting Factory Records
LP
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