Kelly Rowland’s track, Hitman, which is from her latest extended play of body of work, “Project K” heavily sampled Fela’s rhythmic instrumental on “Mr Follow Follow“. .
The track by the late Afrobeat pioneer was a song on the classic ‘Zombie’ album released in 1976. The song had politically induced thematic lyrics directed at addressing the misconduct of the military administration at the time.
Over the years, Fela’s blend of saxophone, guitar, drums and keyboard all intertwined with beautiful vocals to form a funky and highlife style have been sampled by artistes within and outside the continent.
This latest sampling of Fela’s track further re-enforces the growing influence of the Afrobeat genre across the globe.
The genre, with its widespread recognition and acceptance has been able to penetrate into foreign mainstream markets such that new age proponents of the genre now enjoy features and collaborations with other artistes.
Other sampled tracks include Colonial Mentality by Missy Elliot ftTimbaland and Homeboy Sandman, Gentleman by Nas ft JCole and Amerigo Gazaway amongst others.
