What killed Fela?
Most of the world thinks it was complications from HIV but the singer’s manager Rikki Stein believes that his body gave up after years of battering from military officers. Fela was arrested and detained many times in his lifetime. The very first time, he was taken to the notorious Alagbon Close jail.
In there, Fela was respected, so much so that he was made ‘president’ of one of the cells. The cell that Fela stayed in was so tough, it was named after the infamous dark hole of Calcutta, but mispronounced ‘Kalakuta’. On his release Fela immortalised this experience in the protest song “Kalakuta Show”, and renamed his communal compound the Kalakuta Republic.
I don’t know how impressive Sir Dauda’s rap sheet is but I do know one thing you’ll find impressive is this man’s music. On his new single, the singer has taken the “Kalakuta” name and rejigged it, giving it a 2016 spin. The singer’s featured guest Cruise puts some lighthearted raps on the first verse about remaining himself but also advancing his thoughts but he gets more quizzical about the political system on the second.
Gotta feed the streets like a bukka, gotta keep it Kalakuta /
Gotta kill the beef like a butcher, gotta keep it Kalakuta /
It’s not surprising to hear Sir Dauda and his guest being politically charged, the singer’s collaborations with Falz (How Far?) and Eva Alordiah’s (War Coming) are both inspired from a place of struggle and strife. This song is inspired by both of those as well as by Afro beat music. The song was produced by Focus Ramon and will be on Dauda’s EP due out this year.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/274437391″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]