The music star, Ras Kimono, is dead. The man who waxed “Under Presssure” and “We No want” departed Sunday morning in Lagos.
Kimono was planning to make a trip to the US when he took ill. He was taken to the hospital, in Ikeja first and later Lagoon Hospital in Lagos.
Kimono whose debut album Under Pressure, led by the single “Rum-Bar Stylée”, was, according to Wikipedia, a big hit in the Nigerian music scene in 1989. Before he released his solo album, he was in a group called The Jastix along with Amos McRoy and Majek Fashek. His life journey is published below according to wikipedia:
‘Born Ekeleke Elumelu, in Delta State, Nigeria, hee started out his career, firstly as a student of Gbenoba Secondary School Agbor and later as a member of the legendary Jastix Reggae Ital, alongside Majek Fashek, Amos McRoy Jegg and Black Rice Osagie. His music was greatly influenced by the poverty, inequality and hardship he witnessed in his early life. He released his solo debut album “Under pressure” on the Premier Music label in 1989, which propelled him to instant continental stardom. The album had hits like “Under pressure”, “Rasta get jail” and the massive hit “Rhumba style”.
He later released a string of hit albums, touring all over Africa, Europe and the USA, promoting his brand of Reggae music. He has won several awards including the Nigeria Music Awards, Fame Music Awards and many more. He was still performing to a loyal fan-base of all ages and his music is still played on Radio, throughout West Africa. Kimono served a long apprenticeship on the Nigerian music circuit, experimenting with a number of styles, before making his late 80s breakthrough as a reggae singer.
Together with his Massive Dread Reggae Band, Kimono released his debut album, Under Pressure, in 1989 accompanied by the popular single, ‘Rum-Bar Stylee’, this revealed both a Jamaican and native African influence (the latter particularly evident in his ‘Patois’ delivery, as frequently employed by Fela Kuti to communicate with the urban underclass). His strongly polemical lyrics produced album sales of over 100, 000 copies, and a fervent following for his advocacy of social change.
‘What’s Gwan’ proved even more successful, with the topics selected including legalisation of marijuana, and the need for Africans to intellectually repel colonialism and its arbitrary boundaries between tribes. Most controversially, he was not averse to naming directly those in power he saw as synonymous with backdoor imperialism.’