Fela Kuti lives on. AIDS awareness organization Red Hot has partnered with cross-genre collaborators representing rock, hip-hop, Americana, and classical for the release of Fela Kuti compositions on Red Hot + Fela. The album features classic Fela anthems like “Lady” recorded by tUnE-yArDs, Questlove, Angelique Kidjo, and Akua Naru, “ITT” by Superhuman Happiness, “No Buredi” [cont.]

The Roots funky drummer explains how Fela Kuti’s far reaching influence shapes the music of today.

While Fela Kuti may not have had the sweeping sampled influence on rap music that artists like James Brown, George Clinton, Roy Ayers, or David Axelrod have had, he’s definitely made his mark, by influencing hip-hop’s conscious elite, whether they’ve chosen to sample him, or if they simply overheard his devastating Afro-Beat rhythms in their [cont.]