Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit (50th Anniversary Edition)(Preorder 20/11/26)

Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit (50th Anniversary Edition)

Label: Knitting Factory Records - KFR2015-8 - 0720841207580
Format: Vinyl, Album, Gold Nugget
Country: UK
Released: 20th Nov 2026
Genre: African


Description
Expensive Shit is the twelfth full-length album by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Ransome Kuti and his Africa 70 band. Long, long groove laden tracks (nothing here clocks in under 10 minutes). Effortless, serious funk with fantastic oomphy brass sections. Languid, confident, aggressive, jazzy solos. Powerful singing and proclaiming in both English and Nigerian and there's always a vocal chorus to participate in some thrilling call and response.

On Expensive Shit, Fela chronicles a failed attempt to imprison him for possession of weed in 1974. At this time, Nigeria was under a military dictatorship that had declared a war on indecency. Fela’s insubordination infuriated the government, and they repeatedly raided his compound, Kalakuta. During one of the raids, an officer produced a joint from his own pocket and attempted to plant it on Fela, which Fela then swallowed. He was immediately taken to prison, where the police waited three days for him to “produce” an incriminating sample. When the time came, police took Fela’s sample for analysis and found nothing. Each night, Fela and his cellmates had swapped their slop buckets around, allowing Fela to relieve himself without the authorities realizing it. By the time of the public shit, there was no marijuana left in his system. The police had no choice but to let him go.