The Unofficial Website for Fela Kuti and Afrobeat Music

Fela links:

  • Find out about the yearly held Felabration festival at The New Africa Shrine, in honor of Fela Kuti.
     
  • Radio Shrine has fascinating short documentary’s about several Afrobeat musicians, including Fela Kuti.
     
  • The Fela Project: an excellent resource for material about the late Fela Kuti set up by the man behind the art exhibition Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Trevor Schoonmaker.
     
  • A complete discograpy of all of Fela Kuti’s albums from Koola Lobitos to his death in 1997.
     
  • Some excellent interviews about Fela with former bandmembers and famous musicians by Jay Babcock.
     
  • The BBC also has a page on Fela with a biography, discography and links. They also have an excellent radio show on Fela that you can listen to online. Highly recommended!
     
  • Africaman Original is a very well written article about the life and times of Fela Kuti by Carter von Pelt.
     
  • Wikipedia also has a page on Fela with a brief but informative biography.
     
  • Check out video’s of the new hot Afrobeat musical FELA! Off-broadway.
     
  • Audio interview by KCRW’s Tom Schnabel of Fela Anikulapo Kuti from 1986.

Femi Links:

Seun Links:

  • The Myspace page of Seun Kuti, Fela’s youngest son, with tour dates, biography and song samples.
     
  • The Unofficial website for Seun Kuti. Made by Alan from France, this page has a news section that is updated daily.
     
  • Music of Resistance is a music program hosted by Steve Chandra of Asian Dub Foundation. Their feature on Seun Kuti is a must see!
     
  • Nice Seun Kuti interview by the Guardian, 2009.

Other Afrobeat artists:

  • Tony Allen created Afrobeat together with Fela Kuti. At the age of 71 he is still touring and recording.
     
  • Zozo Afrobeat is a 13-piece Afrobeat ensemble from New York led by Kaleta, a West-African musician who performed with Fela Kuti and King Sunny Adé. This site also has a store and tour dates.
     
  • Many current Afrobeat musicians fuse their music with hiphop. Bantu, a musician based in Lagos,  is one of them. Highly recommended!
     
  • Dede Mabiaku is an Afrobeat musician that you should really check out.
     
  •  Asazi Space Funk Explosion is a fusion dance band heavily influenced by Afrobeat and based in Edinburgh, UK. New CD coming out soon!
     
  • The Pubic Opinion Afro Orchestra is a boundary crossing Afrobeat band from Down Under with a strong Hip Hop element. Their recent album Do Anything Go Anywhere is definitely one to check out.
     
  • Dele Sosimi has played keyboards for both Fela and Femi Kuti. He is currently based in London where he also teaches people to play Afrobeat music. Be sure to check out his album “Identity”!
     
  • The new generation of Afrobeat artists is from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Jungle by Night are a group of youngsters that are thrilling the live circuit with a blend of Afrobeat and Ethiopian Jazz.

Afrobeat Blogs: