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Seun Kuti and Egypt 80: Heavier Yet (Lays the Crownless Head) review – Fela’s legacy lives on

Executive producer Lenny Kravitz brings gloss to Kuti’s first album in six years, which keeps his father’s Afrobeat flame burning, with a funk twist

Since Fela’s death in 1997, Seun has dutifully tended the Afrobeat flame (as has big brother Femi) while innovating cautiously, using different producers (including Brian Eno) and collaborating widely. Dey, a plea for togetherness, is also funk-orientated, leavened by a reggae rap from another nepo offspring, Damian Marley. Thereafter things turn more African – a loping groove for Love & Revolution, massed, growling horns, heavy bassline and call-and-response vocals for Emi Aluta, a salute to revolutionaries helped along by Zambian rapper Sampa the Great.

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