Original Sufferhead - Fela Kuti (1981)
Ideated from: the digital crate digging of pre-Napster MP3 sharing.
Anything I told you about Nigerian folk music traditions would just be me reading from a google search, so I’ll spare you. But Fela was a pioneer of what was called “Afrobeat”, a heady mix of that west African traditional music with reimported funk and jazz (which were basically of African origin in the first place). He became a cultural icon and revolutionary, and clashed with the military government of Nigeria constantly during this period. This is protest music, but it’s also a celebration of life and culture.
The music is made up of lengthy pieces (limited only by the length of a side of a record, and sometimes not even by that, which is why you get “part 1” and “part 2” on some records) segueing among funk grooves, jazzy horn charts, politically charged vocal verses, solos, and whatever else Fela would throw in the mix.
If you’re looking for more Fela Kuti awesomeness, I’d recommend about anything from the late 70s or early 80s, but especially He Miss Road, Expensive Shit, and I.T.T. (International Thief Thief)
