African music legend worth celebrating

Fela, A k A Anikolakpo was a multi- instrumentalist , a composer ,the pioneer of afro-beat and an African legend . Instead of living in comfort which his middle class birth entitled him ,he chose to become the voice of the voiceless and the mouth- piece of the downtrodden. His music was entertaining ,educative and enlightening at the same time .

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African musician people love so much

Olusegun Ransome Kuti was born to the family of Mr and Mrs Kuti a middle class family, in the year 1938.As was the custom in those days when parents choose careers for their children .He was dispatched to London to study medicine like his other siblings .In London, he threw away his lab-coat and enrolled into Trinity college of music where he horned his latent music skills .The loss of the Hippocratic profession was the gain of millions of music lovers all over the world .

In the year 1963,he formed the koola lobitos and later joined up with victor Olaiye and his all-stars band .In the same year , afro-beat music his brain-child, was born.A major turn-around in his music style came in his tour of the united states of America where he was inspired by Sandra smith, a partisan of the black panthers party. From that day onwards ,he decided to use his music to address social issues like racism, political thuggery ,corruption and military incursion in politics .Of- course this didn't earn him any hug from the powers that be .Prison was his second home as governments after governments arrest him at the drop of a hat. This was the hefty price he paid for becoming the voice of the voiceless and the mouth-piece of the downtrodden . He spoke -out through music without considering whose ox was gored.

Baba seventy as he was popularly known didn't win many awards as a role model . He was married to twenty -seven women at the same time ,many of whom were his dancers .He later formed a rotational system of keeping twelve wives at the same time . He never failed to keep himself in top conditioning with his famous wrap .He set -up the kalakuta republic ,a commune and a recording studio. Also he had a night club at the empire hotel named African spot and African shrine.

At -any rate, his skills and follower-ship far out- way whatever short coming people might ascribe to him.He was a multi -instrumentalist ,musician, composer and pioneer of afro-beat music. Apart from that ,he was a human right and political activist. His music wasn't only entertaining ,it was both educating and enlightening at the same time

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Fela Kuti was an enigma and it is not a secret that his popular mother was more well known as Fela's mother and his famous brothers were more popular as Fela's brothers. Before his death ,which gave the government a little breathing space ,he had many albums in his kitty . Some of them include Beast of no nation ,Zombie and a lot of others . Believe me, all his music are worth listening to.

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Great songs by the legend ,please listen with open mind

DVD showing Baba 70

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