Fela Kuti

From Wikipedia:

Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (Yoruba: [fɛ̄lá āníkúlák͡pó kútì] born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre that combines West African music with American funk and jazz. At the height of his popularity, he was referred to as one of Africa’s most “challenging and charismatic music performers”. AllMusic described him as “a musical and sociopolitical voice” of international significance.

Kuti was the son of Nigerian women’s rights activist Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. After early experiences abroad, he and his band Africa ’70 (featuring drummer and musical director Tony Allen) shot to stardom in Nigeria during the 1970s, during which Kuti was an outspoken critic and target of Nigeria’s military juntas. In 1970, he founded the Kalakuta Republic commune, which declared itself independent from military rule. The commune was destroyed in a 1977 army raid that injured Kuti and killed his mother. He was jailed by the government of Muhammadu Buhari in 1984, but released after 20 months. Kuti continued to record and perform through the 1980s and 1990s. Since his death in 1997, reissues and compilations of his music have been overseen by his son, Femi Kuti.

In 2026, Kuti was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the early/musical influence category after two previous nominations. […]

In 2021, Hulu released a six-episode documentary miniseries, McCartney 3,2,1, in which Paul McCartney is quoted as saying of a visit to see Fela Kuti at the African Shrine, Kuti’s club outside of Lagos, in the early 1970s: “The music was so incredible that I wept. Hearing that was one of the greatest music moments of my life.”

From okayafrica, September 6, 2018:

Paul McCartney recently sat for an extended interview with Marc Maron in which he covered a bunch of Beatles memories, as well as many from his releases with Wings and solo career. […]

When Paul arrives in Nigeria, the first thing he sees in the papers were headlines of Fela Kuti accusing him of “coming to steal the black man’s music,” a story he’s told many times before.

So he calls up Fela and invites him to the studio to hear the songs he’s working on, to prove that his recordings are nothing like afrobeat or any other African music. That’s where the new bits of details of this story start.

[Fela] came over with his 30 wives and a studio full of ganja. He was one wild cat, he used to have a bottle of whiskey in which was marinating a pound of pot… in the whiskey. We turned out to be real good friends, he got it, he said ‘no you’re not doing that’ [stealing African music].

Ginger Baker was there, he was his big friend. So, Fela invites us to his club which was outside Lagos, the Afrika Shrine. This was a few of us, little white people, me and a couple of friends. So we go out there and I say, ‘”let’s not smoke any pot.” Cause it’s pretty crazy, we’re out in the jungle and it’s pitch black.

So we’re sitting there with Fela [at The Shrine] and one of Fela’s guys comes up, he’s crouching and he’s got a packet of Rothmans cigarettes. They’re all joints. He goes, ‘”You want one of these?” I say, “no thanks,” so he carries around and gets to Ginger Baker who says “Yeah man! Sure!'”

Then Fela shouts, “Ginger Baker! The only man I know never refuse a smoke!”

So I go, “A-ha! Ok, I’ll have one of those.”

Man. I tripped out. It was so strong. It was stronger than anything I’ve ever had, I don’t know if there was something in it.

But in the end it was a good night.

Paul McCartney

My best experience of that was Fela Kuti live. That was insane — at his place, the African Shrine. And I wasn’t going to get wasted, because it was very much the thing to do with Fela. I was with Ginger Baker too. And I was trying to resist — the guys were coming up with joints, you know, and I was saying, “Okay, I’m good, I’m good, thank you.” I was doing very well. And then this pivotal moment came — the guy went up to Ginger, and Ginger takes a smoke, great, he’s smoking away. Fela comes over to him, claps an arm around him, and says, “Ginger Baker — the only man I know who never refuses a smoke.” So I go. I said, “Yeah, okay, I’ll have one.” And I got wrecked. Wrecked, paranoid, the whole thing. And I was in a state until his band came on. And then they just hit this riff that I still remember. And it was incredible. And I just wept. That was an experience you could never forget. I still know the riff. The band kicked in and it was like, whoa.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Zane Lowe, May 2026