FEMI KUTI
Fight to Win
(MCA)
The late, great Nigerian bandleader Fela Anikulapo-Kuti set a standard for protest songs by inventing his own style of music to drive home his points. An undulating, sensuous groove that combined traditional Yoruban melodies and African polyrhythms with American funk and jazz, Afrobeat became the perfect medium for Fela's message of unity and social change. Even the corrupt regimes of his home country recognized his music's power, jailing, beating and even banishing Fela several times during his long life. After his death in 1997, it was widely assumed that no one could possibly fill his shoes when it came to expressing the frustrations and suffering of the common African with the same blend of booty-shaking musicality and political rage. The nay-sayers didn't reckon with Femi Kuti. A long-standing member of Fela's band, Femi left his father's employ in 1986 to find his own way. He faithfully reproduced his father's Afrobeat sound at first, but began evolving his sound into an entity in its own right. Now, with his third album Fight to Win, Femi Kuti assumes the mantle of avatar of Afrobeat while at the same time declaring himself his own man.

Femi has long favored shorter song structures than his father, whose tunes could last upwards of 20 minutes. Until now, though, Femi's tracks often sounded like excerpts of longer pieces, with no defined beginning or end. He started freeing himself from this limitation on his last record Shoki Shoki, and with Fight to Win he masterfully creates arrangements in the five- to six-minute range, packing more rhythm and melody into one song than most musicians do with an entire album. Much of the credit should go to Femi's band Positive Force. Percussionists Olusegun Damisa and Samson Olawale and drummer Samuel Aina keep the polyrhythms flowing like sparkling wine, never letting the tunes lose energy. Guest bassists N'Doumbé Djengé and Pino Palladino provide rubbery bottoms that go straight to the hips, while guitarist Adedokun Oke adds subtle rhythmic accents and catchy hooks. Guest keyboardists Money Mark and Patrick Goraguer use electric pianos, organs and analog synths to color the melodies in a variety of funky hues; the influence of pioneering keyboardist Bernie Worrell's work with the P-Funk Mob is obvious. Perhaps most important is the horn section, as the saxes, trumpets and trombone pack the biggest melodic punch in much the same way that Southern soul depends on the brass to carry the hooks. Femi's rich, soulful voice flows above and around it all, leading his chorus in chants for peace and unity, adding his own alto sax solos for punctuation. The results are mesmerizing tracks that are both complex and accessible, the most satisfying sounds of his career.

On previous records, Femi was content for more generalized messages of peace and love, but no longer. As evidenced by the record's title, Femi is far more direct in his sentiments here. He points an angry finger at corrupt African leaders, particularly Nigerian general Ibrahim Babangida, with the irresistibly funky workout "Traitors of Africa," then calls upon those same leaders to start chipping away at Africa's many social problems in the catchy "Do Your Best" (which features rapper Mos Def in a surprisingly well-integrated cameo). The rump-shaking "Stop AIDS" is as direct as its title in its admonitions to African people to "cover your bamboo," while the melodic title track, guest-starring R&B singer Jaguar Wright, is a reminder to corrupt African officials that the common people will never surrender their goals of freedom. Femi even takes on the influence of colonial revisionism with history lessons like "Eko Lagos" and "Alkebu-Lan" ("Cradle of Civilization"). He doesn't forget the more personal reflections with which he made his name, however, meditating on the death of his father, aunt and sister in the dreadful year of "'97" and giving thanks to his mother for raising him right in the memorably melodic "Walk On the Right Side," a hit single waiting to happen. The album isn't perfect—the meandering, impressionistic "Missing Link," with rapper Common, never quite comes together—but it's as close to divine as anything by Femi's legendary father.

With forthright sentiments integrated into musical frameworks that range from skanking ("Eko Lagos") to funky ("Do Your Best") to relentlessly propulsive ("Traitors of Africa") to even poppy ("Walk On the Right Side," the title tune), Femi and producer Sodi @ Zarma make Fight to Win easily accessible to ears not accustomed to African rhythms. The beauty of their accomplishment is that they did it without sacrificing an ounce of Afrobeat's unique Nigerian soul. In a fair and just universe, this record would be one of those rare successes that makes its auteur an international star purely on musical merit. While that's unlikely to happen, Fight to Win will still be remembered as a landmark in the evolution of the career of one of the international music scene's most important and soulful artists. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Thomas Mapfumo, Bob Marley