"Irresistible, high energy Afrobics"
The children of famous musicians often find it hard to fill their fathers' shoes. Femi Kuti managed it, almost literally, in 1985 when he had to lead Egypt 80 at a US show after his father Fela had been arrested. In 1987 he formed his band The Positive Force, and both Femi and the band have assumed Fela's mantle since the death of Nigeria's biggest star in 1997. Femi's take on Afrobeat pays respect to his father's style - his sax playing can be uncannily similar to Fela's - while adding modern dance rhythms to its funky, percussive roots

For an artist who's the best part of two decades into his own career as a bandleader, it's rather churlish to keep harping on about his father, but that's a cross that Femi Kuti will always have to bear. Sure, he's the first-born son of Fela Kuti and inheritor of the great man's Afrobeat legacy, but since his father's death, Femi's successfully carved out his own clear identity. Where Fela's spliff-soaked discourses often clocked in beyond the ten-minute mark, Kuti the younger has always opted for a leaner approach, cranking up the tempo to deliver his message in more bite-sized form. And his songs hit the spot, no more so than on 1999's stunning Shoki Shoki album, one of the most complete records to emerge from Africa over the past ten years. Subsequent worldwide acclaim has seen him widening his canvas to work with hip-hop royalty like Common and Mos Def, all the while never diluting the power or passion of his brand of Afrobeat - a foot-to-the-floor juggernaut of sound that has no use for the brake pedal. Strap yourself in because Femi is proof that funk was born in Africa.