Saturday, November 17, 2007

Afrobeat

Main article: Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a style most closely associated with Nigeria, though practitioners and fans are found throughout West Africa, and Afrobeat recordings are a prominent part of the world music category found throughout the developed world. It is a fusion of American funk music with elements of highlife, jazz and other styles of West African music. The most popular and well-known performer, indeed the most famous Nigerian musician in history, is undoubtedly Fela Kuti.
Fela Kuti began performing in 1961, but did not start playing in his distinctive Afrobeat style until his exposure to Sierra Leonean
Afro-soul singer Geraldo Pino in 1963. Although Kuti is often credited as the only pioneer of Afrobeat, other musicians such as Kuti Orlando Julius Ekemode were also prominent in the early Afrobeat scene, where they combined highlife, jazz and funk. A brief period in the United States saw him exposed to the Black Power movement and the Black Panthers, an influence that he would come to express in his lyrics. After living in London briefly, he moved back to Lagos and opened a club, The Shrine, which was one of the most popular music spots in the city. He started recording with Africa '70, a huge band featuring drummer Tony Allen, who has since gone on to become a well-known musician in his own right. With Africa 70, Kuti recorded a series of hits, earning the ire of the government as he tackled such diverse issues as poverty, traffic and skin-bleaching. In 1985, Kuti was jailed for five years, but was released after only two years after international outcry and massive domestic protests. Upon release, Kuti continued to criticise the government in his songs, and became known for eccentric behaviour, such as suddenly divorcing all twenty-eight wives because "no man has the right to own a woman's vagina". His death from AIDS in 1997 sparked a period of national mourning that was unprecedented in documented Nigerian history.[45]
Fela Kuti's "African Woman"
Fela Kuti's Afrobeat sound made him the most famous musician in Nigerian history
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In the 1980s, Afrobeat became affiliated with the burgeoning genre of
world music. In Europe and North America, so-called "world music" acts came from all over the world and played in a multitude of styles. Fela Kuti and his Afrobeat followers were among the most famous of the musicians considered world music.
By the end of the '80s and early '90s, Afrobeat had diversified by taking in new influences from
jazz and rock and roll. The ever-masked and enigmatic Lágbájá became one of the standard-bearers of the new wave of Afrobeat, especially after his 1996 LP C'est Une African Thing. Following a surprise appearance in place of his father, Fela, Femi Kuti garnered a large fan base that enabled him to tour across Europe.
Femi Kuti's "Sorry Sorry (Old School Afro D)"
Femi Kuti, son of Fela Kuti, is one of the major performers of modern Afrobeat
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Femi Kuti
Lagbaja's "Ilu Re O"
Lagbaja is a modern Afrobeat performer
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Waka
Main article:
Waka music
The popular songstress Salawa Abeni had become nationally renowned after the release of Late General Murtala Ramat Mohammed in 1976, which was the first Nigerian recording by a woman to sell more than a million copies. In the 1980s, she remained one of the nation's best-selling artists, creating her own unique variety of music called waka; she was so closely associated with the genre that a royal figure, the Alaafin of Oyo, Obalamidi Adeyemi, crowned her the "Queen of Waka Music" in 1992. Waka was a fusion of jùjú, fuji and traditional Yoruban music.

Reggae and hip hop
Main articles:
Nigerian reggae, Nigerian gospel and Nigerian hip hop
Nigerian reggae was popularised by stars such as Majek Fashek, whose 1988 cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song", became an unprecedented success for reggae in Nigeria. Like many later Nigerian reggae stars, Fashek was a part of the long-running band The Matadors, who toured and recorded incessantly during the mid to late 1980s and early '90s. Later prominent reggae musicians included Jerri Jheto, Daddy Showkey, Ras Kimono and the London-based MC Afrikan Simba.
Nigerian
gospel music, based on African American musical models, grew in the 1970s when church-based performance groups and individuals moved to public exhibition. Gospel became very popular in Nigeria throughout the last part of the century, especially singers like Sammie Okposo, whose 2000 hit "Welu Welu" was one of the most popular songs in Nigerian history The Sun News Online, and the long-time performer Onyeka Onwenu.
Hip hop music was brought to Nigeria in the late 1980s, and grew steadily popular throughout the first part of the 1990s. The first acts included [Sound on Sound], [Emphasis], [Ruff Rugged & Raw], [SWAT ROOT]Osha, De Weez and Black Masquradaz. Need more information on Nigerian Music? please visit the largest database of Nigerian artists and creativity on the web at http://www.nigeria-arts.net.ng . Moreover ,Mainstream success grew later in the decade, with attention brought by early hits like The Trybesmen's "Trybal Marks" (1999) and the trio The Remedies' "Judile" and "Sakoma". One of The Remedies, Tony Tetuila, went on to work with the Plantashun Boiz to great commercial acclaim. The 1999 founding of Paybacktyme Records helped redefined and establish a Nigerian hip hop scene. Also, the general rapid growth of the entertainment scene with support from the media helped popularise Hiphop music in Nigera. Television Programmes like the MTN Y'ello show, Music Africa, and Soundcity played a major role especially with Presenters like Deji Falope whose fascination for diamond and platinum chains and earrings seem to more than subtly express the culture. Other prominent Nigerian hip-hop musicians include former member of The Remedies Eedris Abdulkareem (who had a well-publicised spat with the American star 50 Cent), Deshola Idowu, JJC and the 419 Squad, Zdon Paporrella, D'Banj, Bolade Bentley, Shawl-x, Twin-X, P-Square, Thorobreds, Modenine and Terry tha Rapman.

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