fela! fela! fela!

Man, myth, badass — Fela Kuti was all of them and more. Even people who love him can’t deny some of his views were a bit, er, unconventional, but the power of the man’s music and the force and passion with which he stood up to a corrupt government — in the face of repeated beatings and imprisonment — are hard to deny. Fela was incredibly prolific, and he leaves behind a legacy that, simply put, redefined music. How many people in history invented an entire genre?

Fela’s catalog hit eMusic this week, and we put together this hub to help you get started. My favorite periods fall within the “Black President” and “Band on the Run” era. Both Richard Gehr and Jess Harvell did an excellent job contextualizing these records, and I highly recommend reading all of their writeups to get a sense for the situations that prompted these songs.

What surprised me the most the first time I heard Fela’s records was just how uncompromising they were. Fela was not fucking around — he names names and describes in detail the injustices against both him personally and all of Nigeria. The lyrics to “Zombie” are cutting, straight-up mocking the Nigerian army in one epic 12-minute taunt. And “Expensive Shit,” which recounts the notorious incident that had the Nigerian gov’t literally standing around waiting for Fela to go to the bathroom, cuts even deeper, reveling in the way Fela was able to pull one over on officials.

That Fela kept doing this, over and over, with such incredible focus and precision despite the actions the government took against him — actions that ultimately resulted in the brutal and heartbreaking death of Fela’s mother, activist Fumilyao Ransome-Kuti, is inspiring. This is a man who stood up to injustice, and fuck the personal cost.

He’s also incredibly contradictory — despite the fact that his own mother was a firebrand revolutionary, Fela’s views on women are, to put it mildly, considerably less than stellar. In fact, many of his cultural views in general were far from progressive. But for sheer audacity, nerve and unflagging adherence to social justice, you could hardly ask for a more inspiring figure.

We are able to offer the Fela titles below what would be considered “full album cost,” so take advantage and dive in today!