Posted June 4, 2012 by killakam 3 comments

Okayafrica TV: The Making of ‘Lady’ w/ Questlove & tUnE-yArDs

As you know, ?uesto recently linked up with tUnE-yArDs, Angélique Kidjoand Akua Naru to cover the legendary afrobeat pioneer for Red Hot + FELA — a new Fela Kuti tribute by the Red Hot Organizationand the (RED) campaign being released by Knitting Factory Records. In this behind-the-scenes clip, ?uesto and Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs) talk about dissecting Fela’s complex percussive rhythms and reclaiming “Lady” for modern African women. Check out (RED) RUSH TO ZERO, a ten-day fundraising and awareness campaign sparked by the track’s release. Stream/buy “Lady” below and learn more about the campaign.

About the author

salute. View Profile »

Comments

http://LaserGuidedMindBullets.com novaburn

The Red, Hot + Riot from a few years back was incredible. Excited to see this new project taking place.
http://www.okayplayer.com al2thab

I’m diggin this new sound – I guess what I wonder is this: isn’t it ironic that the majority of these set musicians are (I’m assuming here) white? As a white man myself I know that there’s always been pockets of white people getting into ‘black’ music. For me, what’s been problematic has been when we (white people) appropriate it and claim it as ‘ours’, as opposed to supporting black people’s history, connection and struggle to counter racism. I’m not saying that this is the case here – it appears that this is more of a collaborative born out of a commitment to the afrobeat sound – but I would have liked the interviews to have inquired into how black music has conscientised white people, and potentially those musicians in this project. tUnE-yArDs comments about white feminism and Fela’s objection to it as a form of imperialsm is interesting, but only the surface of a larger discussion about gender/imperialism links. I think the project could gain A LOT from exploring more of these complicated cross-cultural and political issues openly.
- http://www.okayplayer.com Eddie “STATS”
  
  Alex / FYI there is a larger discussion of those very links btwn gender and colonial mentality–from an african woman’s perspective and specifically looking at how they relate to this song “Lady”–in Trevor Schoonmaker’s anthology of essays about Fela:
  
  http://books.google.com/books/about/Fela.html?id=gQROaY12no8C
  
  i believe the essay im thinking of is: “School Days in Lagos–Fela, Lady, and ‘Acada’ Girls” by Nkiru Nzegwu