Mádé Kuti

The grandson of the pioneering inventor of Afrobeat Fela Kuti, and son of Femi -- the keeper of Fela's flame -- Made Kuti blends aspects of that genre with jazz, highlife, rock, and reggae while maintaining the socially conscious themes that have always been at the forefront of his family's music.

The multi-instrumentalist was raised in the New Afrika Shrine, Lagos State, an arts center and open-air tourist attraction owned by his father. Seeing Femi perform regularly at the venue -- and having access to tomes such as Thomas Packenham's The Scramble for Africa -- provided both a musical and political education beyond that provided by his school. He was inspired to contribute to his father's music and became a regular member of Femi's Positive Force band. Made was part of the choir on mid-2000s concert releases such as Africa Shrine and Live at the Shrine, and even played sax on Femi's 2008's studio set Day by Day. In turn, he was given the opportunity to study music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in Greenwich, London, the very place where his grandfather had studied in the late '50s. Made spent seven years in the city, graduating in 2018.

In October 2020, he released his debut solo track, "Free Your Mind," which was swiftly followed that December by "Your Enemy." The new year brought his first album, For(e)ward, a record simultaneously released both on its own and packaged with Femi Kuti's tenth studio album, Stop the Hate, under the title Legacy +. ~ James Wilkinson, Rovi