D’angelo, Femi Kuti, Macy Gray, & The Soultronics (ft. Nile Rodgers & Roy Hargrove) - Water No Get Enemy
1. When you see that line up all you can really say is. DAMN.
2. If you do not know who Fela Kuti is click this link now and expose yourself to a genius… the black president.
Fela Kuti is like the Nigerian James Brown and Bob Marley. James due to his leading and commanding of such a funky ass band and Bob because of his political power in Nigeria. I wanted to post one of his original tracks, but they are all long and exceed the 10mb limit that tumblr has for audio tracks. However, this is one hell of a cover. The song “Water No Get Enemy” first appeared on Fela’s album Expensive Shit. The album title came from an incident where the police tried to arrest Fela by planting a joint on him. Fela ate the joint and the police waited for him to crap it out. The story says that Fela used another inmates excrement in order to get off from the chareges. Water No Get Enemy is sung in yoruba and english. Fela scholar Michael Veal suggested that Fela uses water as a metaphor for the natural flow of society, a flow that the ruling patriarchy in Nigeria ostensibly denied to most of its citizenry.
T’o ba fe lo we omi l’o ma’lo
If you wan to go wash, na water you go use
T’o ba fe se’be omi l’o ma’lo
If you wan cook soup, na water you go use
T’o ri ba n’gbona o omi l’ero re
If your head dey hot, na water go cool am
T’omo ba n’dagba omi l’o ma’lo
If your child dey grow, na water he go use
If water kill your child, na water you go use
T’omi ba p’omo e o omi na lo ma’lo
Ko s’ohun to’le se k’o ma lo’mi o
Nothing without water
Ko s’ohun to’le se k’o ma lo’mi o
Omi o l’ota o
[Chorus]
Water, him no get enemy!
Omi o l’ota o
If you fight am, unless you wan die
I say water no get enemy
If you fight am, unless you wan die
Omi o l’ota o
I dey talk of Black man power
I dey talk of Black power, I say
I say water no get enemy
If you fight am, unless you wan die
I say water no get enemy
I say water no get enemy
Omi o l’ota o
Omi o l’ota o
Check out the video from the recording session of this song
I am also dying to see the play about Fela’s life
