Yellow Fever (1976)

by Fela Kuti

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Milton Vargas-Chacón This album was my introduction to afrobeat.

Yellow Fever/Na Poi 75 are both fabulous.

Vinyl quality is good, shipping was fast, and arrived without damage. Glad to add this to my collection. Favorite track: Yellow Fever.

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Fela deplores the fashion among African women for skin-whitening creams, an example of the post-colonial inferiority complex he believed was holding back the country's development. The song addresses the fashion much as 1973’s “Gentleman” berated African men for adopting European suits and ties. Fela explains that if you catch an “original” fever such as jaundice, you will suffer but, with luck, survive, and your symptoms will fade away. But if you catch an “artificial” (self-inflicted) fever, such as the craze for skin bleaching: “Artificial catch you… na your money go do am for you, you go pass yellow, you go catch moustache for face, you got get your double colour, your yansch go black like coal, you self go think say you dey fine (but) who say you dey fine?” Whitening creams make you look sick on the outside, says Fela, and are symptomatic of being sick inside, too.

First re-issued by Knitting Factory Records as part of Fela Kuti Box Set #4 curated by Erykah Badu in 2018. Originally released by Decca Afrodisia.

Includes unlimited streaming of Yellow Fever (1976) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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	1.	Yellow Fever 15:22
	2.	Na Poi (1975 Version) 13:32

about

The title track, “Yellow Fever”, is a scathing criticism of post-colonial Nigerians who cannot shake their “colonial mentality.” Fela rails on women who bleach their skin as an act of beauty, contemptuously adding that, despite what they think, it only makes them less attractive. The second track of the album is the notorious “Na Poi” (loosely translating to “things collide”) which was banned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Company for its explicit, socially shocking sexual references. As Fela jams out, the song becomes a veritable “how-to” guide to sex, including allusions to motion and lubrication, among other taboo details.

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released May 11, 2010

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Fela Kuti Lagos, Nigeria

Over a decade after his death, vindication has come to Fela Kuti, Africa’s musical genius. AfroBeat, his gift to the world, is now an international staple on his own uncompromising terms, social content intact.

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