ABUJA: Legendary singer, known for the hit singles like Under Pressure and ‘Rumba Stylee’ Ras Kimono is dead.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The renown singer who was in the fore front of the Nigerian music revolution of the 90’s is one of the most accomplished Raggae acts Nigeria has ever produced. He died today in Lagos.
Metro News reports that was to travel to United States last night, and he complained of not feeling too well. He was rushed to an hospital in Ikeja, Lagos then later taken to Lagoon Hospital in the Island.
As at press time , music veterans Tony Okoroji, Sir Shina Peters, others are meeting to make burial plans.
Ras Kimono’s debut album Under Pressure, led by the single “Rum-Bar Stylée”, was a big hit in the Nigerian music scene in 1989.
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.
Despite his success and achievement’s he remained level heads, which is perhaps why was very respected in the music industry. In a recent chat with Sunday Scoop, he said,
