Zombie

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Work

Zombie · Fela Kuti released this Afrobeat album in 1976 in Nigeria on Coconut Records. A year later Creole Records followed in the United Kingdom. The record was a sharp attack on the Nigerian soldiers. With the image of the zombie he described how the army worked: following orders without thinking.

The people received the album with enthusiasm, the government was furious. A thousand soldiers attacked the Kalakuta Republic, the commune Kuti had founded. He was badly beaten, his mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was thrown out of a window and died, and his studio, instruments and master tapes were lost. According to the source, this violence was probably a consequence of the record. Robert Christgau called the music true fusion. In 2025 Zombie became the first Nigerian album in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Listening

Track list

1. 1Zombie12:26Apple Music ↗
2. 2Mr. Follow Follow12:58Apple Music ↗
3. 3Observation Is No Crime13:26Apple Music ↗
4. 4Mistake (Live At the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1978)14:47Apple Music ↗

30-second previews via Apple Music. Listen to the whole album on Apple Music ↗