Afrobeat has its origins in conflict. Using his thrilling musical hybrid of American soul, James Brown-style big-band funk, jazz, and the traditional West African pop genre Highlife to address and resist everything from colonialism to military violence, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who created the genre in the 1970s, became the voice for the poor, the oppressed, and the politically active across his native Nigeria, Africa, and the world. Kuti became such a dangerously powerful icon that at one point the Nigerian military junta sent 1,000 soldiers to attack his... More >>>