Artist Femi Kuti

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Femi Kuti

Disproving Freud has become a kind of musical parlor game, but here’s one rebuttal to the Oedipus Complex that doesn’t get enough play: Femi Kuti, the eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and the principal torch-bearer for his father’s genre. Had Femi fallen out with Fela, you might be hearing Afrogrunge or Afrotechno (though TV On The Radio and Dragons Of Zynth have given us decent approximations of those). Instead, the younger Kuti has taken Afrobeat—a heady mix of funk, jazz, and tribal rhythms—and continued to push the genre’s boundaries. (See Common’s guest appearance on Kuti’s 2001 album Fight To Win.)

Updated 06/18/2009