Ras Kimono

Ras Kimono was a Nigerian musician and activist who launched a modern style of music called Afrobeat, which fused American blues, jazz, and funk with traditional Yoruba music. He started his career as a student of Gbenoba Secondary School Agbor and later as a member of the Jastix Reggae Ital, alongside Majek Fashek, Amos McRoy Jegg and Black Rice Osagie. His music was greatly influenced by the poverty, inequality and hardship he witnessed in his early life. He released his solo debut album Under Pressure on the Premier Music label in 1989, which propelled him to instant continental stardom. The album had hits such as Under Pressure, Natty Get Jail and the massive hit Rhumba Style. He later released a string of hit albums, touring all over Africa, Europe and the United States, promoting his brand of reggae music. He won several awards including the Nigeria Music Awards, Fame Music Awards and many more. Following his 1969 tour of the United States, where he was influenced by the politics of Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and other militants, Keshi's music became increasingly politicized. He exhorted social change in such songs as Zombie, Monkey Banana, Beasts of No Nation, and Upside Down. Ras Kimono (as he was popularly known) and his band, which was known variously as the Nigeria 70, Africa 70, and later the Egypt 80, performed for packed houses at the early-morning concerts that they staged at Ras Kimono’s often-raided nightclub in Lagos. The firebrand singer, who gyrated over the keyboard as he sang in English and Yoruba, struck a chord among the unemployed, disadvantaged, and oppressed. His politically charged songs, which decried oppression by Nigeria’s military government, prompted authorities to routinely raid his club, looking for reasons to jail him. Near there he also set up a communal compound, which he proclaimed the independent Kalakuta Republic. As head of the commune, he often provoked controversy and attracted attention by promoting indulgence in sex, polygamy (he married 27 women), and drugs, especially marijuana. A 1977 raid on the complex by Nigerian authorities resulted in his brief incarceration and the death of his mother the following year due to complications from a fall. He died at the age of 60 on 10 June 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria, after suffering a cardiac arrest.