One People One World

Album review

Here, we have the eldest son of the Kuti family, Femi, with his tenth album: One People, One World. It's a record that holds to the revolutionary, conscious and dance-centred essence of Afrobeat as created by the unforgettable Fela. But it also shows off the particular talents of Femi and his group Positive Force. Before they were committed to disc, these pieces had spent a long time being perfected on the stage of the Shrine, as he had it rebuilt in Lagos, on the site of the temple built by his father. The heritage is dealt with very confidently; but the Afrobeat sound isn't stuffy: it bears the mark of our times as seen through Fela's legacy. The message is global, positive and fully summed up in the title One People, One World. From one end of the world to the other, we are in the same mess, on the edge of the same abyss; but we must not lose hope; we have to fight injustice.

Musically, Femi has drawn ideas and lessons from across Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. He also expresses a certain melodic tenderness, as on the rollicking Africa Will Be Great Again which opens proceedings, and in which the horns play a euphoric, almost pop melody. The following track, Best to Live on the Good Side, has a guitar riff that sounds like one of Nile Rodgers's, but the horns, organ and percussion remind us of where we are. With its faint island flavour, One People One World takes us away briefly from urban Lagos and Evil People nods at Brazilian samba, but Femi and his band (including his son, Omorinmade Anikulapo Kuti, often at the piano or on the bass) never stop proudly hammering out that noble Afro beat is the pride of the continent. © Benjamin Minimum/Qobuz