BACK IN 1991, WHEN KUNLE JUSTICE
first met Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the godfather
of Nigerian Afrobeat hadn’t been in a
recording studio in more than two
years—but at age 52, he felt he still
had plenty left to say. “The music
was a passion with him,” Justice
says, his accent liberally tinged
with a mixture of Yoruba and the
Pidgin English he grew up with
in Lagos, Nigeria. “And I got the
passion too. That’s the reason
I’m there. The music was for
the people, for everybody, so
Fela ask me if I was
okay to join the
band, and of
course I
said, ‘Me? No wahala—no problem.’”
The outfit was called Egypt 80, and
the following year, Justice nabbed a guitar
spot on Underground System, which
would be Fela’s last album before
his 1997 death. But the band itself
wasn’t finished. Fela’s youngest
son, Seun, took over, and Justice
switched to keyboards (his first
instrument) and eventually the
bass. His sinewy, insistent, and
straight-up funky lines are a key
part of the driving rhythmic
force behind Seun’s latest fulllength
CD with Egypt 80, and
the first to feature Justice
alone in the bass chair.
With Afrobeat
enjoying a youthful
resurgence Stateside—
thanks to bands
like Antibalas, Budos
Band, Chicago
Afrobeat Project, and
more—it’s refreshing to
hear a veteran of
the Lagos scene
tear up a groove
with authority.
“Afrobeat
rhythm is very
different,” Justice
explains, “because you have
to know how to get the feel.
When the bass starts off, you can’t just walk
with the drummer. Sometimes you play
with him, and sometimes you play around
him. So the bass has a lot of room to move,
but you must remember you are part of the
house, too. Nigerian music comes and goes,
but Afrobeat always stays in that groove.”
Rise was tracked in Rio de Janiero and
produced in London by Brian Eno and John
Reynolds, so there’s a tape-saturated fullness
to the mix that harkens back to vintage Fela.
But the real low-end depth comes from
Justice’s raw, no-frills bass sound. Reliable
gear is hard to come by in Nigeria—he’ll play
through whatever he can get—but he loved the
sound of the Yamaha BBT500 1x15 combo
he used for the Rise sessions.
Using his thumb and two fingers, Justice
adjusts his technique to fit
the song, whether it needs
a nimble touch (on the
wickedly up-tempo and
slippery
“Mr. Big Thief”)
or a bit more heft and crunch
(on the hard-edged “Slave Masters”).
Whatever the approach, he’s always right in
the subtly tempo-pushing pocket that is the
backbone of the best Afrobeat. “There’s no
room for anything fancy. The music is raw,
so the whole instrument is raw. Really, the
sound comes from your hands and the way
you play. For someone who has not played
this music before, the best thing I can tell
them is to try to use different parts of your
[plucking] hand when you play the strings.
You will get different sounds and tones. When
you play those in a rhythm that repeats, you
are starting to get to Afrobeat.”
HEAR HIM ON
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, From
Africa With Fury: Rise [Knitting
Factory, 2011]
GEAR
Bass Fender Jazz Bass
Rig Yamaha BBT500 1x15
Strings GHS Flea Signature
Bass Boomers