First published in 2004, this lively study on the Abami Eda looks at the context, lyrics, instrumentation, visual art and people through which the music maestro produced his music. Also, if you want to read Fela’s last interview where the Abami Eda said… and also said… LOL! My friend, go and buy your copy! During his lifetime, Fela had an obsession for Igbo. This book, written after his demise, is obsessed with commas! Olufela Olusegun Oludoton Ransome-Kuti - Fela - is born on 15 October in Abeokuta, a town fifty miles north of Lagos.

On a visit to Lagos, Fela meets Jimo Kombi Braimah, known to everyone as JK, who will become his life-long friend and confidant. Of the lot, Arrest the Music! Fela and his Rebel Art and Politics by Tejumola Olaniyan, is the most aesthetic! Fela changes his last name from Ransome-Kuti to Anikulapo-Kuti (“one who carries death in his pouch”).The author dedicates the book to the memories of Sola and Fehintola Anikulapo-Kuti. However, if these damsels were alive, they would sue Erhabor for unsolicited association with a bad product. Poor grammar, spellings, and punctuations were compounded by poor story telling skills. It is the mother of awful books! Ooops…Did I just call it that? Read to the end (but then, I advise you toss this book with a great heave!). Fela’s high-profile campaign for the right to smoke weed continues, as does police harassment of him and the Shrine. Who else can write credibly about Fela than a man who knew him from the start of his career to the end of his life? This memoir, published in 2016, is replete with anecdotes that can never be found in any book on the subject.

Fela is wrongfully jailed for three days giving him material for future albums, Alagbon Close and Expensive Shit. As Stephen King famously remarked on book openings, the front cover of this book also says: “Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.” And when you indeed enter its world, you are not disappointed. If you are an employee, apply for a week’s leave. If, on the other hand, you are self-employed or an employer of labour, you will still need to set a week aside. Most importantly, make sure you are not home alone. In an unprecedentedly brutal assault, 1,000 soldiers batter their way into Kalakuta and raze it to the ground. If this short review is not enough and you still want to read Idowu’s book because I know you are as curious as the cat, I wish you well.But then, the author has stayed in France for so many years that one can assume he wrote this book in French and used an online software to translate it to English.