red hot + riot

"Your child they grow, no water you goan use?" - D'Angelo, Femi Kuti, + Macy Gray featuring Roy Hargrove, Nile Rodgers, the Soultronics + Positive Force, Water No Get Enemy (Red Hot + Riot)

The sounds of Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, a style he created, is filling my world up, my senses, my soul. As this album plays, it's funk and jazz blended with traditional Nigerian root music and these contemporary artists singing or rapping above it, I know, without a doubt, that I am both African and American. I feel this music at my core. My limbs and joints jut and sway in ways that should be foreign to me, unnatural. It's not the way I have ever danced before. It is unlike any of the music videos I've watched, performances I've seen, styles I've mimicked. It feels right though, so right, as if it is from something other than what I know. It is from what I am.

It smells like outside when I close my eyes. I smell dirt and foliage, water and animals. I hear the rustle of wind, I see dark faces, I want to run just for the joy of running. I also sense the strain of hearts, the toil of work and strife, the fear of government. I smell it. Revolution. I want it. I want to pick up a rock. I want to throw it at that man with the gun. I want to grab that politician with the fake smile and the suit and the lies. I want to scream "Liar! Can't you see we are dying here?!" I want to demand what we need. I want health care. I want food. I want water. I want to be free. To be Free. TO BE FREE. I want to run just for the joy of running.

But I have stones and you have guns. If I get guns, you will have tanks. And money. And power. AND POWER AND MONEY. And, I can scream. And I can yell. And I can fight. Revolution! But will it matter? I see their faces. They are scared. They just want to live. They just want to be without pain. And if we fight, it will bring the pain. Oh, the pain will come because you have money and power and bigger guns. They tell me not to do this. Our children will die. Our parents will die. We will die. You will die. And we won't be safe. And it will be worse. "What is worse than living in fear?" I ask. "What is worse than living without freedom?" I may die. But I will not die afraid.

REVOLUTION!

I just want to run for the joy of running. For the joy of life. For the joy of me.

Red. Hot. Riot.

Did you buy the album yet?

Comments

[j. brotherlove]

Aiight! Aiight! I get the message(s). I'll pick it up, tomorrow. Dang!

[Laura]

Fela + James Brown = For-sho' hella downbeat!

[Bink]

I haven't bought this album yet. I have been listenining to one of his older albums. I'm loving it. His CD has managed to stay in my car's CD player for a complete month. This is a great feat. I listen to it daily, over and over again. It never gets old.

[lynne]

My god J, had I not already had the joint, this post would have made me cop it for real. As always, your words incite, evoke...

[Yolanda]

I couldnt have said it any better myself and as with several other red hot cds(Red hot and rio and red hot on verve bossa nova) it has inspired to check out more music of Fela Kuti and like artist but it also has me asking what else can I do to help my fellow sisters and brothers in Africa?

[RadioFrance.fr]

While numerous monumental projects end up doing very little to their intended principal, Red Hot + Riot is an extraordinary album. It is an important project that would make this singer-composer, bandleader, trumpet, saxophone, keyboard player, and politician proud of those conscious hip-hop artists who chose to participate and expose Nigeria's AFROBEAT or highlife-jazz (fusing elements of Yoruba music with jazz). This tribute honors the man who not only sought to liberate Nigerians and Africans, but the entire black race. What shouldn't get lost in the music is the Red Hot raison d'être. More importantly, I shouldn’t hesitate to express that the proceeds from the album support awareness and prevention of AIDS.
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (meaning, one who has death in his pouch) died of an Aids-related illness at his home in Nigeria on August 2nd, 1997 at the age of 58. All of you will witness "55 million Africans die from AIDS over the next 20 years, and 70% of the 40 million people with HIV or AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa … It’s time to relentlessly address this crisis.

DEMAND THAT YOUR LOCAL RECORD STORES STOCK AND PROMOTE “Red Hot + Riot:The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti”

"I just want to do my part and leave...Not for what they're going to remember you for, but for what you believe in as a man." – Olufela Anikulapo-Kuti Abami Eda
Reviewed by Andre Action Jackson (M’zée Fula-Ngenge) – Chairman, JFPI Corporation on radiofrance.fr

[la-la]

does anyone know the meaning behind ,"Water No Enemy"?

[Lionel]

Hello,
I'm looking for the words of
the song "Water no get enemy"

Thanks to anyone who could send them
to me