Amerigo Gazaway - Fela Soul
2025-02-05
The title alone should be enough for anyone to at least do a double-take. It is obviously a portmanteau of “Fela Kuti” and “De La Soul” and the music is exactly that—a mashup of Fela Kuti’s music overlaid with De La Soul’s vocal tracks. The record starts out strong with one of De La Soul’s best lyrical performances on Stakes is High and with a musical production clearly paying homage to J Dilla’s production on the original. It hits an all-time high (in my opinion, obviously) on Ooh which is a mashup of Fela Kuti’s Gentleman—a fantastic song—and De La Soul’s Oooh, a perfectly fine but not particularly remarkable track on its own, but put them together and you have an absolute banger.
I am not sure if it is because the samples are not cleared or if there is some other reason, but it seems to be difficult to find a downloadable, DRM-free version of this album (at least one that you get to pay for). According to https://amerigomusic.com/2021/09/10/fela-soul-more-than-u-know-10th-anniversary-remix/ it used to be available on Bandcamp, but it is also very much gone from there again, so buy the vinyl (see the Discogs link) or stream it from your favorite streaming service.
Listen
- Ooh (feat. Redman): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYrzcD5u0o&t=632s
- Stakes is High: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRYrzcD5u0o