Fela and Africa 70 - Expensive Shit

Music 5 years ago

Fela and Africa 70 - Expensive Shit

The twelfth (12th) full length studio album by Nigerian Afrobeat musician, composer, instrumentalist and Human Rights activist Fela Anikulapo Ransome Kuti and his band Afrika 70, Expensive Shit, was released in 1975.

The theme of the title track Expensive Shit is based on Kuti’s arrest by the Nigerian Police for possession of Indian hemp, which he succeeded in eating. He was then taken into custody so as to excrete the product for testing but he wittingly used some other inmate’s excreta. He was later released when the faeces tested negative for Indian hemp.

Real witty, right?

The album’s second track, Water No Get Enemy, talks about the universality and invaluable nature of water. In the song, Kuti encourages his country fellows saying that if you work in tune with the universe, nothing can really be done to stop you.


© 1975 Sounds Workshop.