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Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti
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Price: $9.98
Price subject to change!
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0008811307523
Label: Mca
Manufacturer: Mca
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Mca
Release Date: 2002-10-15
Studio: Mca
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Customer reviews of Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worthy of Fela's name
Comment: There is some great new afrobeat on this disc; super respectful of Fela and his legacy and never bound by his forms. The hip-hop is incredible and amazingly constructed; the Water Get No Enemy cover with Fela's son Femi Kuti, D'Angelo, Macy Gray, and Roy Hargrove is a definite higlight-- not at all what you'd expect from such popular names, no ego in the way. Tony Allen's No Agreement cooks like a house fire and the keyboard solo is really great (meandering, inattentive improvised solos being an achilles' heel of much afrobeat for this reviewer). There's nothing bad here. I was initially a little disappointed that the Sade track is a remix of a previously recorded song (a half-hearted contribution, I thought at first) but it's still a good mix.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect Tribute for a good cause!
Comment: Fela was the founder and king of Afrbeat, and an inspiration to acts as diverse as fellow Nigerian Lagbaja, and US prog rock duo The Mars Volta (Yes!!). Sadly he succumbed to AIDS related complications in 1997. Fitting then that this tribute CD raises money for AIDS relief in Africa. The CD liner notes talk extensively on this.
Chock full of a diverse array of musical talent; Nile Rogers, Macy Gray, D'Angelo, Sade, The Roots, Les Nubians, Meshell Ndegeocello, Femi Kuti, Baaba Maal and Cheikh Lo to name a few. Most of the songs are reinterpretations of songs by Fela in the artists own unique style, usually arranged differently from the originals. Fela's original vocals are interspersed during interludes. An excellent blend of African meets African American.
`Water no get enemy' featuring Femi, Macy Gray, Nile Rogers, Roy Hargrove and D'Angelo stays faithful to the original; shuffling beats, rich percussion, and lots of blaring horns. It's a real treat hearing Macy and D'Angelo singing in pidgin English.
The vocals of Sade's `By your side' are imposed on a shuffling dubby Afrobeat rhythm. Echo-ey vocals and rich percussion, dreamy sounding. Excellent!
`So be it' featuring Kelis on vocals is the other non Fela composition. It is a calming R&B song with some African sounding backing vocals and great horns played by Ugochi Nwaogwugwu.
`No Agreement' by Res, Tony Allen, Ray Lema, Baaba Maal, Positive Black Soul & Archie Shepp is another outstanding performance. Great jazzy breaks and wonderful horns.
`Zombie (part 1)' is a bouncy hip hop/Afrobeat affair featuring Bugz in the Attic & Wunmi, with lyrics about the robot mentality of soldiers blindly taking orders from above. Written during the days of military rule in Nigeria.
`Zombie (part 2)' with Nile Rogers and Roy Hargrove is an excellent instrumental piece, closer to the original. An energetic horn laden, percussion rich number, with faint electronic tweets.
Another outstanding piece is `Shuffering and shmiling' featuring Dead Prez, Talib Kweli, Bilal and Jorge Ben. Transformed with skittery beats and some skat singing and rapping, and horns that stay true to the original. Beautiful!
Each song is musically rich and captivating in it's own way, be it `Gentleman', `Shakara/lady (parts 1 and 2)' with excellent guitar work, talking drums and razor sharp horns, to `Trouble sleep, yanga wake am'. The attention to detail is astounding, everything in its right place.
A beautiful CD showing the wealth and beauty of African music. Not meant to replace the originals at all, and a perfect tribute to the king.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Afrobeat for the masses
Comment: Shuffering and shmiling alone is enough to make this cd a solid purchase. Underground hip hop luminaries Talib Kweli and Dead Prez combine to remake the song while keeping the same general beat and theme. It's an unbelievably compelling song that does no injustice to the original, rare in a tribute album.The fun doesnt stop with Shuffering though. Sade's track is a standout and Femi Kuti does his daddy proud. Buy this CD, your ears will thank you.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: Red Hot and Riot was a HUGE disappointment. With the exception of a very few covers that stay true to the original (the best being "Water no get Enemy" by his son, Femi), the album consists largely of rap songs that have only one thing in common with the original Fela Kuti tunes: the title. Gone are the absolutely exquisite melodies and rhythms that came out of the pure genius of Fela. Some of the rappers doing the covers are so egotistical that not only do they abandon Fela's heavenly musical stylings; they don't even bother to adhere to the original lyrics. Given all this, I just want to issue a warning to those listeners who think that by buying this album, they may be getting a good introduction to Fela's music: save your money and buy one of HIS albums. Even Fela's worst album would be a thousand times more worthwhile to listen to than this eminently forgetable drivel.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A treasure
Comment: There's not a bad cut on this CD. I never had the pleasure of seeing Fela Kuti, altho I've caught his son in performance a few times. This CD admirably honors Fela's fight, his soul, his fire! My favorite cut is Gentleman with Meshell and Yerba Buena! Baby, it just don't get any better than this...hot, luscious Afro-Soul with a dead-on message. I'm not a Sade fan, but even I have to bask in the black velvet glow of her slide thru this remake of By Your Side. Anyone who digs Macy Gray (count me in) will be all smiles listening to her signature riffs on Water No Get Enemy. I hope the inclusion of Baaba Maal and Cheikh Lo will turn on those listeners who might not otherwise tune in to these killer African artists. This CD is always in my rotation (along with Resident Alien, Seal IV, 6 Degrees' Latin Travels, and Tourist) Slide it in and dance your heart to bursting. It's all for a good cause (AIDS awareness), so double bonus!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Never has there been a more appropriate Red Hot tribute than this one dedicated to the music of Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti, the Nigerian legend who died from AIDS-related complications in 1997. The artists and groups heard here, nearly 40 all told, cover the musical spectrum: hip-hop (Blackalicious, Roots), jazz (Roy Hargrove, Archie Shepp); soul (Sade, D'Angelo), Afrobeat (Tony Allen, Femi Kuti), world music (Baaba Maal, Jorge Ben), electronic music (Mixmaster Mike, Money Mark) and rock (Nile Rodgers). They have come together to raise money for the 25 million Africans now infected with the AIDS/HIV virus. Red Hot efforts often pair different artists together on the same song, and this album features many once-in-a-lifetime collaborations. Fela's music has been refashioned and mixed together here according to the styles of the artists, rendering several of the 20 songs barely recognizable in comparison with the originals. But such is the strength of Fela's music that even such singular-sounding artists as Macy Gray and Dead Prez get into the Afrobeat spirit of things. --Tad Hendrickson
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