MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
Fela Kuti
Afrobeats has the attention of the room, and with that the potential to provide the necessary platform for an artist to emerge with the power to inspire both a local and global audience with an infectious sound as well as a conscious message.
"As musicians, we are constantly just writing music every day in the studio. Then once in a while we get an itch to put out a body of work. For me the itch came back after I ran for President of Haiti and went through the fire and came back home."
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
After speaking to her uncle Hugh Masekela, Somi decided that she wanted to go to Lagos, Nigeria, a trip that inspired her new album, The Lagos Music Salon.
While it isn't surprising that such an inventive and innovative lyricist would so multi-faceted, up until now Tariq Trotter has always been very private. With his recent foray into the fashion world, however, he is opening up and allowing us a rare glimpse inside.
Even I had to admit, as fascinated as I was about Africa, that I feared it more and had no urgent desire to visit the land in which society tells me I am a descendent of. Fear of the unknown had wiped away any desire in me that might have been fostered.
The release of Alex Gibney's new documentary on the late Nigerian pop star Fela Kuti spurred me to sift through my own personal journalistic archives to find an audiotaped interview I conducted with Fela in 1986. And here it is.
