Lemi’s Fela covers are vibrant, nuclear-blast-bright
Which isn’t to say that his post-Fela output has been
illustrations that depict suffering with such wild
insignificant; a 2002 illustration entitled Anoda Sistem
anguish it would make Hieronymous Bosch blush.
is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and
1982’s Original Suffer Head, which was recorded shortly
he continues to show his own fine art pieces around
after another violent raid on Fela’s home, shows Africa
Lagos. He also recently worked with Fela’s son Seun,
as a warrior bleeding oil and forced to carry water
who took over the reins of his father’s band Egypt 80
it’s not allowed to drink. A long line of people forms
following the senior Kuti’s AIDS-related death in 1997.
below the continent and winds its way to a suspiciouslooking voting box in the foreground. Behind them, a
Still, it’s the work Lemi did with Fela that endures, and
jet flies over a football stadium. Like the album it covers,
talking to him, you get the sense that he wouldn’t have
Original Suffer Head is at once intricate in its attention
it any other way; the gratitude he feels toward his late
to detail and blunt in its frank execution and accusatory
comrade is apparent in the notes of pride that appear
posture toward the Nigerian government. On the cover
in his voice when he talks about their relationship.
of 1976’s No Bread, a man in a mask is literally carrying
“Fela didn’t respect anyone [initially], but when you
a bucket of shit while behind him another man blows
had something to offer, he showed so much respect,”
up a balloon stamped with the phrase “Mr. Inflation is
he says. “[He] gave me so much freedom of expression.”
in town.” A bare-breasted woman stands between them,
offering up her body.
That freedom resulted in a body of work that is still
influencing artists halfway around the world. When
After he and Fela parted ways, Lemi went on to create
Lemi made the trip to New York for the opening of the
over two-thousand album covers for other acts, working
New Museum’s 2003 exhibit Black President: The Art
for just about every single record label to open an office
and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, he was the only one
in Nigeria. While his output has been prodigious, those
of the thirty-four featured artists to have actually met
covers were “not in the same style as Fela’s,” he says.
the man himself. “We got to know Fela through your
“Most of them are mundane.” He also supplemented his
art,” he says the other artists told him. “We’d go into
early income with advertising gigs, executing letterhead
the record store and [look at the cover and] say, ‘Oh!
and brochures for local agencies.
What music is in this?’ You are a legend.”
Still only sixty, Lemi is now organizing his archives
and preparing to open a museum of his work in Lagos,
where people continue to come to pay respect to what
he and Fela created. It’s a motherfucker, man.
lemi composing the no bread cover, 1975
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