Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to induct its first African star : NPR

Nigerian superstar Fela Kuti performs at Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Michigan, in 1986. Last year, the late musician received two historic honors: as the first African artist to receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and to be nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Leni Sinclair/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives

hide caption

toggle caption

Leni Sinclair/Getty Images/Michael Ochs Archives

Editor’s note: This is an update of the profile published in December of the great African musician Fela Kuti. The original post was published when it was announced that Kuti would become the first African musician to receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. This week, he is on the list of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and once again constitutes a historic “first”: the first African musician to be inducted into this hall.

Fela Kuti, an Afrobeat pioneer and activist who died in 1997, now holds two historic honors.

On December 19, he became the first African musician to receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, joining an elite group of legends like The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra – all recognized for their “creative contributions of exceptional artistic significance to the field of recording.”

This week, it was announced that he is among the musicians who will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2026. He is being honored in the “musical influence” category. The Hall of Famer paid this tribute: “Fela Kuti was a revolutionary voice who spoke out against injustice through his innovative music – sparking political change while infusing jazz, West African music and soul to become a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre. »

He has long been acclaimed by his fellow African artists. “Fela Kuti’s music was a fearless voice of Africa – his rhythms carried truth, resistance and freedom, inspiring generations of African musicians to express themselves boldly through sound,” says legendary Senegalese singer Youssou N’ Dour.

Nicknamed the “black president” for his role as a political and cultural leader, Fela is one of the rare artists recognized under a single name. He achieved enormous success as a pioneer of the Afrobeat genre, with its multi-layered, shifting syncopations, horns and psychedelic vocals. He was never nominated for a Grammy during his lifetime – although his musician sons, Femi and Seun, and grandson Made, collectively received eight nominations.

A very big sound

Fela kissed a massive sound. His band often had more than 30 members (including backup singers and dancers) and featured two bass guitars and two baritone saxophones. He himself played saxophone, keyboards, guitar, drums and trumpet (his first instrument as a child). The emphasis on complex polyrhythms and the inclusion of traditional African instruments like the talking drum were revolutionary at the time – a rebellion against the dominance of Western pop and a marked effort to forge a postcolonial African identity.

From the start of his career, Fela aimed to reach a wider, pan-African audience by singing almost exclusively in Nigerian Pidgin English (rather than his native language, Yoruba, which is untranslated on most of the continent).

He didn’t play by the rules of the music business. He expressed disdain for party tunes and love songs. He would release as many as seven albums in a single year. And he refused to play songs live once they had been recorded.

His music broke new ground with songs lasting up to 45 minutes. One of his most famous albums, Confusionwas composed of a solitary melody divided into two sides, Confusion, part 1 I And Confusion, part 1 II — the first half entirely instrumental.

BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) of Soweto, South Africa, the incendiary live band and 2023 WOMEX Artist Award winner, sent a statement to NPR: “Fela is our spiritual muse and if he had not pursued music without limits of song length and without speaking his truth – even when it put his life in danger – we would not have had the courage to be ourselves without fear or favor.”

A political awakening – and its repercussions

During a 10-month stay in Los Angeles in 1969, Fela became friends with members of the Black Panther Party. Subsequently, his music became political. He became an outspoken opponent of Nigeria’s military dictatorship and South African apartheid.

The year after his 1976 album Zombie’s scathing indictment of the Nigerian government, the New York Times reported that a force of 1,000 Nigerian military personnel burned down Fela’s home and recording compound in Lagos (including all of his instruments and master recording tapes). Fela was beaten unconscious and his mother, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, was thrown from an upstairs window and later died from her injuries.

That album, Zombie, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame last year, becoming the fourth record by an African artist among the 1,165 releases.

In 1979, Fela ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Nigeria. His political activism has added to his notoriety and controversial history. He was arrested several times by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s military junta, including at Lagos airport while leaving for a tour of the United States. He was sentenced to five years in prison and detained for more than a year. Amnesty International called him a “prisoner of conscience”. Fela was only released after the overthrow of the Buhari regime in August 1985.

Musical life after death

Fela succumbed to complications from AIDS in 1997. His older brother, Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, a pediatrician and AIDS activist who served as Nigeria’s health minister, spread the word that Fela’s death was AIDS-related. According to Ransome-Kuti, Fela believed that “all doctors made AIDS, including me.”

Following this news, one of the country’s largest daily newspapers reported that condom sales had surged in Nigeria. Fela’s death marked a turning point in raising awareness of the epidemic across Africa. It is estimated that more than a million people attended his funeral.

Since his death, his music has endured. A tribute album, Red Hot + Riot: The music and spirit of Fela Kutiwas released in 2002, featuring artists such as Sade, D’Angelo, Nile Rodgers, Questlove and Taj Mahal. Proceeds were donated to organizations working to raise awareness about AIDS. And in 2009, Jay-Z and Will Smith produced Fela!a Broadway musical about Fela’s life that earned 11 Tony Award nominations.

For African musicians today and around the world, he is both a legend and a source of inspiration.

Tunde Adebimpe, Nigerian American actor (Rachel is getting married, Twisters) and lead singer of the Grammy-nominated band TV on the Radio, told NPR, “Fela is the chapter of my musical education for me. [ass]”.

Malian singer Salif Keita, a four-time Grammy nominee, puts it this way: “Brother Fela had a great influence on my music. I loved him very much. He was a courageous man. His legacy is undisputed.”

Ian Brennan is a Grammy-winning music producer (Tinariwen, Parchman Prison Prayer, The Good, West Virginia Serpent Handlers Revival) who has recorded more than 50 records by international artists on five continents. He is the author of 10 books. His last is Missing music: voices from where dirt roads end.