Guest post by Nathan Arizona
For the second year in a row, the most interesting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee is probably the Nigerian Fela Kuti. And once again he’s probably the least known to a general audience.
Kuti (often known just as Fela) didn’t make it his first year and might not this year, but I’d vote for him. He essentially invented Afrobeat, the mix of African highlife with American funk and jazz that influenced Talking Heads, Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel and continues today as a very active sub-genre. He performed with many prominent rockers and had a particularly close musical connection with Ginger Baker.
He also established what he considered an independent kingdom in Nigeria that he called Kalikuta Republic. He ran the well-populated compound accordingly, except for the odd government crackdown. He did some jail time. He once got married to 28 women there as his entourage looked on.
The 17 (!) nominees announced Tuesday also include Eminem, the expected top vote-getter, Beck, Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie. They’re joined by Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, DEVO, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Judas Priest, MC5, New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine, Carly Simon and A Tribe Called Quest. Kind of a weak list, and not just because a lot of it is not rock. It helps to think of it as the Hall of Fame for Popular Music Written After the dawn of Rock and Roll.
Kuti was politically active throughout his career, influenced by contact with the U.S. Black Power movement in the early ‘70s. He lived here for a few years after developing his sound in London clubs. He was attending medical school there until the lure of music caught him.
Though he was an international superstar into the ‘90s, he was not a great marketer, refusing to perform songs after he recorded them. And he was always more of a cult favorite in America. That won’t help his chances of getting into the Hall.
Here’s Kuti performing “Why Black Man Dey Suffer” in 1971.
