Seun Kuti out with Fury

Seun Kuti first set his feet on a stage at eight years of age and has been planted there, albeit moving from country to country spreading the Afrobeat gospel that his iconic, non-conformist, renegade and highly revered father started propagating decades ago.
His father was Fela Anikulapo Kuti; he was a king and president at the Kalakuta Republic.
Being Fela’s (last) son confers royalty on him; the royalty of the Afrobeat dynasty that has refused to fade away in the consciousness of the people who either loved or hated the man, Fela, his ways, his message and his music.
All that he was and ever wanted to be is being amplified on stages across the world with the Broadway show.
Fela was unarguable the most vocal and the loudest musical voice of his generation.
If you grew up and survived on a good ration of ‘Unknown Soldier’, ‘Zombie’, ‘Beast of no Nation’, ‘Shuffering and Shimilling’ and the countless hits that Fela created while he was here, you might want to wean yourself of those staple and listen to the new sound of Afrobeat a la Seun Anikulapo Kuti.
From Africa with Fury: Rise, the title of Seun’s second studio release speaks volumes. But you have to wait and listen to it contemplatively to make a decision for yourself whether dropping copies all over Libya will fuel or bring a solution to that country’s uprising like Seun suggested in a recent interview: “You want to help African people – why don’t you stop African rulers from stashing their wealth in your countries? I think a better way for the British and U.S. governments is to load their planes full of my albums and drop them on Libya.”
The album is a call on compatriots, African compatriots, to rise against the forces that enslave Africa. You will even hear names like Mosanto and Haliburton. You will hear chorus lines like “our ears don full for your words, our stomach still empty” in direct reference to the empty promises of the politicians who are full of words but with little action.
While I sat in the living room of his house off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, a call came in from a certain “big man” who wanted Seun to perform at the grand ball for the president after the inauguration on May 29. Fela’s son refused. “If I go, I will embarrass them and they would have to pull the plugs off the sound and hurry me off the stage. Besides, I think it is a ploy by the Presidency to put money in everyone’s pocket so as to silence them.”
With Seun, Afrobeat has not lost the activism and the thrust to speak up for and on behalf of the masses. He said “Afrobeat is not selfish music.”
Seun has stripped his own Afrobeat off the elaboration and multiple movements of the Fela era and rendered it playable for radio in five/six minutes so that the message can be spread far and wide.
But the horns and the brass still ring through in distinct tones and riffs and melodic phrases to remember. However, it must be said that this is Afrobeat for the modern age or should we say that Afrobeat has found a truly youthful voice for the new age ensuring that you did not see its requiem at the death of its originator.
Brian Eno produced the seven-track album, which was recorded entirely in Brazil.
I personally wanted to see the striking strokes of Lemi Ghariokwu again on an Afrobeat project and Seun Kuti granted my wish with the album sleeve design – a colourful silhouette of Seun breathing into his saxophone and the titles of the track from the album as graffiti on the silhouetted impression of a son who has finally become a man with a voice that will not be ignored in the coming years.
Dafe Ivwurie @'Nigerian Daily Independent'