Interesting article about Fela and the growth of his popularity (and the popularity of Afrobeat) in the US. Interesting, altho I have some problems with the whole "greatest musician you've never heard of" idea. I mean, I'm sure it's true of the population overall. But it's hard to relate to it personally when I've been listening to Antibalas since their first CD came out and have organized two 24 hour Afrobeat marathons at XDU. I mean, pretty much everyone I know is a huge Afrobeat fan. Thinking back, the first time I can remember reading about Fela was when one of his US tours was canceled at the last minute when the Nigerian gov't arrested him on trumped up currency smuggling charges. That was in (I'm pretty sure) 1984. So, yeah, hard to wrap my brain around the idea of Fela as unknown. But, still, I am weirded out by the idea that there's now a Broadway musical about Fela. By Bill T. jones, no less.