Fela Kuti: Expensive Shit

2014 vinyl LP pressing of the Afrobeat star’s 1975 album. Nigerian police, seeking to put down this independent-minded rascal, tried to plant a joint on Kuti during a gathering at his home. Wise to their plan, he quickly swallowed the joint, but the police then threw him in jail to produce the evidence from his feces. He escaped charges with some wily plotting, and then produced this song mocking the police for wasting resources on hassling him instead of furthering justice in Nigeria. Opening brass rounds give way to interplay between Fela’s narration about the episode and responses from his group of female singers.