{
  "slug": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70",
  "name": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70",
  "description": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70 appears 8 times in our Afrobeat, 1976, Dancing to Bad News, Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records, and The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred lists, placing as high as No. 1. Hand-curated, with a reason for every pick.",
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/fela-kuti-and-africa-70/",
  "appearanceCount": 8,
  "distinctRecordings": 3,
  "years": {
    "first": 1975,
    "last": 1977
  },
  "highestPlacing": {
    "rank": 1,
    "list": "Afrobeat"
  },
  "appearsOn": [
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      "kind": "genre",
      "slug": "afrobeat",
      "name": "Afrobeat",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/",
      "entries": 3
    },
    {
      "kind": "curator",
      "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
      "name": "1976",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/",
      "entries": 1
    },
    {
      "kind": "curator",
      "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
      "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/",
      "entries": 1
    },
    {
      "kind": "curator",
      "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
      "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/",
      "entries": 1
    },
    {
      "kind": "curator",
      "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
      "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/",
      "entries": 2
    }
  ],
  "tracks": [
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve minutes calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies. The state responded by burning his compound down, which is the most direct review any record on this site has received.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSg31Ignw4",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 1,
      "on": {
        "kind": "genre",
        "slug": "afrobeat",
        "name": "Afrobeat",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
      },
      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--water-no-get-enemy",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--water-no-get-enemy/",
      "title": "Water No Get Enemy",
      "year": 1975,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The gentlest thing he made and the one people who dislike political music still love. A proverb, a horn line, and Tony Allen playing the most relaxed complicated drum part imaginable.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Water%20No%20Get%20Enemy",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jx2qcKd1-0",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 2,
      "on": {
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        "slug": "afrobeat",
        "name": "Afrobeat",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
      },
      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--sorrow-tears-and-blood",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--sorrow-tears-and-blood/",
      "title": "Sorrow Tears and Blood",
      "year": 1977,
      "label": "Kalakuta",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Recorded after the soldiers came. The groove is as buoyant as ever and the lyric is a list of what they left behind, and the gap between the two is the whole point.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Sorrow%20Tears%20and%20Blood",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9EXbJDodN9Y",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": 4,
      "on": {
        "kind": "genre",
        "slug": "afrobeat",
        "name": "Afrobeat",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
      },
      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve minutes calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies, released in Nigeria while that army was in power. They burned his compound down for it and threw his mother out of a window. Nothing else here cost its maker as much.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
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          "slug": "afrobeat",
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          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
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        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
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      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RUSg31Ignw4",
          "exact": true
        }
      },
      "rank": null,
      "on": {
        "kind": "curator",
        "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
        "name": "1976",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
      },
      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve minutes of the most physically irresistible band on the continent, spent calling the Nigerian army a column of unthinking bodies. The soldiers who burned his compound down had understood it; the dancefloor never had to.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "genre",
          "slug": "afrobeat",
          "name": "Afrobeat",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/afrobeat/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
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          "exact": true
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      "rank": null,
      "on": {
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        "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
        "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
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      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "This one is Radio Nova. I had come out of a very Anglo-Saxon club world in England, and the people there kept putting African and Brazilian records in front of me until my ears were open to all of it.",
      "alsoOn": [
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          "slug": "afrobeat",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-seventy-six/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        },
        {
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          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
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        "spotify": {
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      "on": {
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        "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
        "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
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    },
    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--zombie/",
      "title": "Zombie",
      "year": 1976,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Twelve minutes calling the army a column of unthinking bodies, answered by the state burning his compound down. Few records have been taken this seriously by their subject.",
      "alsoOn": [
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          "slug": "afrobeat",
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          "slug": "nineteen-seventy-six",
          "name": "1976",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records",
          "name": "Laurent Garnier — A Life in Twenty-One Records",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/laurent-garnier-a-life-in-records/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Fela%20Kuti%20%26%20Africa%2070%20Zombie",
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        "youtubeMusic": {
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        "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
        "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
        "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
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      "artist": "Fela Kuti & Africa 70"
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    {
      "trackKey": "fela-kuti-and-africa-70--water-no-get-enemy",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/fela-kuti-and-africa-70--water-no-get-enemy/",
      "title": "Water No Get Enemy",
      "year": 1975,
      "label": "Coconut",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A proverb, a horn line, and Tony Allen playing the most relaxed complicated drum part imaginable. The way in for anyone who finds the politics forbidding.",
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      ],
      "links": {
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}