Afrobeat is a music genre which involves the combination of elements of West African musical styles such as fuji music and highlife with American jazz and later soul and funk influences, with a focus on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion. The term was coined in the 1960s by Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who is responsible for pioneering and popularizing the style both within and outside Nigeria.
Tony Oladipo Allen was a Nigerian drummer, composer, and songwriter who lived and worked in Paris, France. Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the primary co-founders of the genre of Afrobeat music. Fela once stated that, "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat." He was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived".
Hotel X is a world music/jazz group founded in 1992 in Richmond, Virginia, by Tim Harding and Ron T. Curry as a setting to explore electric bass duets. Hotel X was quickly joined by a host of Richmond underground music scene veterans and released six albums on the Los Angeles-based SST Records. SST Records was founded by members of the seminal punk rock group Black Flag and included in their catalog some of the great American underground groups such as Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Sound Garden, Universal Congress Of and Saccharine Trust.
Zombie is a studio album by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. It was released in Nigeria by Coconut Records in 1976, and in the United Kingdom by Creole Records in 1977.
In music, the terms Afro/cosmic disco, the cosmic sound, free-style sound, and combinations thereof are used somewhat interchangeably to describe various forms of synthesizer-heavy and/or African-influenced dance music and methods of DJing that were originally developed and promoted by a small number of DJs in certain discothèques of Northern Italy from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The terms slow-motion disco and Elettronica Meccanica are also associated with the genre.
Da Lata are a British group formed in 1994 by Chris Franck and Patrick Forge. They combine Afro-Brazilian influences with other strands from the melting pot of their native London. Franck and Forge previously worked together with the Brighton-based group Batu before setting up Da Lata as a more studio based project. Franck is the main creative force as songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, whereas Forge, better known as a DJ and broadcaster, is credited as co-producer. They made three albums for Palm Pictures: Songs from the Tin (2000), Serious (2003) and a collection of their remix work for other artists, Remixes, which featured their interpretations of songs by Femi Kuti, Luciano, Bebel Gilberto and Sly and Robbie, among others. After a hiatus of several years, the pair started work on a new album in 2011. It was scheduled for release in early 2013.
Shoki Shoki is an album by the Nigerian musician Femi Kuti, released in 1998. The album was released in the United States by MCA Records in 2000. A remix album, Shoki Remixed, was released the same year.
Kokolo, also known as the Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, is an American Afrobeat band from the Lower East Side of New York City, formed in 2001 by songwriter/producer Ray Lugo.
Sila and the Afrofunk Experience is an Afrofunk band formed in 2003.
Victor Abimbola Olaiya OON,, also known as Dr Victor Olaiya, was a Nigerian trumpeter who played in the highlife style. Though famous in Nigeria during the 1950s and early 1960s, Olaiya received little recognition outside his native country. Alhaji Alade Odunewu of the Daily Times called him "The Evil Genius of Highlife."
Soothsayers are a London-based band who perform and record original afrobeat and reggae-influenced music. Founded in 1998 by sax player Idris Rahman and trumpeter Robin Hopcraft, they have released five studio albums and a series of vinyl singles on their own label Red Earth Records.
Ebo Taylor is a Ghanaian guitarist, composer, bandleader, record producer and arranger focusing on highlife and afrobeat music.
Confusion is a 1975 album by Nigerian Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti and his Africa 70 band. It was arranged, composed, and produced by Kuti, who recorded the album after choosing to emphasize his African heritage and nationalism in his music. Confusion is a commentary on the confused state of post-colonial Lagos and its lack of infrastructure and proper leadership at the time. Kuti's pidgin English lyrics depict difficult conditions in the city, including a frenetic, multilingual trading market and inextricable traffic jams in Lagos' major intersections.
No Agreement is an album by Nigerian Afrobeat composer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti, recorded in 1977 and originally released on the Nigerian Decca label.
Psychedelic funk is a music genre that combines funk music with elements of psychedelic rock. It was pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by acts like Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. It would influence subsequent styles including '70s jazz fusion and the '90s West Coast hip hop style G-funk.
Ray Lugo is an American musician. Singing in English and Spanish, Lugo is internationally known for his prolific output and diverse solo work, as well as for leading the groups Kokolo Afrobeat Orchestra, Ray Lugo & The Boogaloo Destroyers and other projects.
Jojo Abot is a Ghanaian artist and musician based in Brooklyn, New York. Her creative output spans video direction, acting, modeling, singing and multimedia performance. Abot's work taps into her home country, using her first language, Ewe, as a source to title her work and as a point of origin for musical inspiration. Her musical inspirations include Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor. Abot has toured and performed with Common, Lauryn Hill, Seun Kuti and Stephen Marley.
Afrobeats, also known as Afro-pop, Afro-fusion, is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and the UK in the 2000s and 2010s. Afrobeats is less of a style per se, and more of a descriptor for the fusion of sounds flowing out of Ghana and Nigeria. Genres such as hiplife, jùjú music, highlife and naija beats, among others, were amalgamated under the 'afrobeats' umbrella.
Blo was a Nigerian psychedelic funk ensemble formed in Lagos and active between 1972 and 1982. The main trio consisted of Laolu "Akins" Akintobi (drums), Berkely "Ike" Jones (guitar), and Mike "Gbenga" Odumosu (bass). The group fused the Afrobeat rhythms of Nigeria with funk and psychedelia derived from '60s Western rock music.
Omorinmade Kuti known professionally as Made Kuti, is a Nigerian afrobeat singer, songwriter and instrumentalist. He released his debut album titled For(e)ward in 2021.
