Seun Kuti Continues The Tradition

Tonight Seun Kuti, son of legendary Afro-beat pioneer Fela Kuti, is performing in Victoria, and yours truly has tickets.  I’m pumped, because if Seun is even half as funky as his father, in a few hours I’ll be getting my dance on fo sho.  He’s performing with Fela’s band as well, so it promises to be an evening of musical goodness.

In light of the occasion, I’ve decided to post Fela Kuti’s 1975 record Expensive Shit for your listening pleasure.  An explosive mix of African rhythms and American jazz-funk, Expensive Shit is named after an incident in which Nigerian police - perhaps tired of his political activism - tried to frame Kuti by placing a joint on him.  According to Wikipedia, he found out and ate the joint, “which prompted the police to bring him into custody … to wait for him to produce the excrement. According to legend he … use[d] another inmates’ feces and was eventually released.”

Check out the eponymous first track below:

Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit (Expensive Shit, 1975)