Posted by | Ray Cornelius
Everybody say “YEAH, YEAH!”
The spirit of Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti will live on forever thanks to a new Nigerian museum that has been erected in his honor. The Kalakuta Museum opened its doors this past week just in time for FelaBration, an annual celebration of Fela’s life and legacy. The museum hopes to attract visitors worldwide and features an array of artifacts including his stage costumes, shoes, photographs and art.
“Everybody has a piece of Fela in him. He touched everybody,” museum architect Theo Lawson told Reuters.
Although it’s been 15 years since he passed away, Fela’s musical influence can easily be seen in some of today’s hip hop, pop and R&B artists including Kayne West, Jay-Z, Common and D’Angelo.
“Fela is the one African figure whose story resonates with modern American hip hop culture,” Questlove, music producer and drummer for the Grammy-winning band The Roots, said in an on-camera interview. “The trials and tribulations that he went through politically, socially, creatively, it’s the story of hip hop. It’s the story of taking nothing and making it into something.”
His life was the subject of the 2009 Tony-Award winning musical, FELA! which introduced scores of fans to him and his timeless music including First Lady Michelle Obama, who gave the show a standing ovation.
Check out the rest of this story at The Grio…
