(October 18, 2019) Afrobeat is “party for your right to fight” music. The genre is deeply funky, and draws on soul, rock, jazz and funk, fusing those musical style with the percussive music of West Africa and the Caribbean. People hear Afrobeat and they find it irresistible, as the music calls them to the dance floor.
Afrobeat is also highly political as Fela Kuti, the genre’s pioneer and most famous practitioner, used Afrobeat to address corruption and persecution in government, the military and business. I discovered “Gimme My Vote Back” by Kuti’s youngest son Seun Kuti during the 2016 election cycle and that cut seemed to speak to disillusion felt by citizens all over the world. And that jam is funky.
Well, the band the London Afrobeat Collective comes hard with the cut “Power To the Women” from their upcoming project Humans. ”Power To the Women” check off all of the boxes for an Afrobeat song that will get the listener ready to dance or march. It’s got those nasty synchronized horn, the talking drums percussion, rock influenced guitars, jazz inspired improvisation and a political message driven home by the impassioned vocals of Juanita Euka that relates the struggles faced by the women of the world — ranging from political persecution in war torn countries to forcing young girls to submit to arranged marriages. When Euka asks, “where’s the power to the women,” she identifies the problem and the solution, and she does so in way that will inspire listeners to sing, dance and mobilize. Check it out here.
By Howard Dukes