Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti created Afrobeat, alongside drummer Tony Allen, by fusing highlife, jazz and Yoruba rhythms with the hard funk of James Brown, then using it as a weapon. With Allen driving Africa 70, his songs stretched across whole album sides: interlocking guitars, chattering percussion, blaring horn charts and Fela's sax and keyboards, building for minutes before he started to sing.

What he sang about was corruption, military rule and colonial hangovers, in pidgin English so ordinary Nigerians could follow. Expensive Shit mocked police who tried to frame him, and 'Zombie' ridiculed soldiers so effectively that it is widely blamed for the army's brutal 1977 raid on his Kalakuta Republic compound. He kept going regardless, later with Egypt 80, on records like Army Arrangement and Underground System.