They call him FELA KUTI.

Fela Kuti is the man. I was hangin with fellow conscious collective member Adina at GSU back in 2003. We were talking about Nina Simone and then we got on the subject of world music. She mentioned this cat Fela Kuti. Up til then, I had heard of Fela but hadn't heard his music. I first heard Fela on a show on WRFG 89.3 in atlanta. The song of course was "Funky Horns". Then I got a chance to hear "Water no get enemy" and it blow my mind. I was like damn thats some real african funk. The intro to that song is awesome and Fela to me is the African version of James Brown. I started wondering like what if those 2 had got together and made some music back then. That ish would have been off the chain. I like the political flare of Fela. He did long songs and called them albums. I seen a Fela album that has 3 songs on it and one of the songs is about 20 minutes long. This brotha was jammin. I got a chance when I was hangin out with dj 4th wurld and solomon to hear "Coffin for heads of state". He straight up told the nigerian government what he truly thought about them and didn't back down. The Afro-beat sound is addictive. Jamal Ahmad use to put on a sunday evening event at endenu a couple of summers ago. I was listening to fela and started doing these little afro heads with the faces painted like fela's wives. I sold one to Jamal Ahmad and took a picture of it for my portfolio. Another Fela song I dig is "Fight to Finish". With all the people who front on me for no reason, this song is inspiring and encourages me to continue to move forward regardless of what people think about me. In the words of Fela, now I just "Look and Laugh". Yall check out some Fela Kuti and his son Femi. Yo, on some realness, Some People think that since I am from the country backwoods of the south and I speak with an accent and have no dread locks that we are all on some dumb ish. I listen to all types of music, read, went to college, speak 2 languages, write, paint, sip Mr.Boston, burn incense and eat watermelon. Realize that if those black folks from the dirty south back in the early 1900's had never decided to move up North, there would be no harlem renaissance or any of that. I wish black folks would get over those simple things and let's all get down and build.
peace!