Afrobeat

Of course, we have to begin our Afrobeat playlist with the music's founder, Fela Kuti. Fela recorded more than 40 albums during his career, but in 1999 they were distilled onto The Best Best Of Fela Kuti, which is a great place to start your exploration of Afrobeat. Also of note is Brooklyn-based Antibalas, whose Latin- and soul-infused grooves give their sound a modern-day twist, absolutely scorching the track "Che Che Colé (Makossa Mix)" in the process.

On their 2004 album, Ancestry In Progress, Zap Mama do what they do best —injecting their breathtaking vocal harmonies with hip-hop and jazz breakbeats along with Afro-Cuban rhythms. The results: the incredible "Zap Babies." (The cries of an infant never sounded so good.) Closer to home — Ann Arbor, MI, to be precise — comes Nomo, a killer collective practiced in the art of avant-Afro-funk. If you haven't heard their 2006 album, New Tones, do yourself a favor: take in "Nu Tones"

The Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble's "Star Wars" effectively uses sound bites from newscasts and documentaries to drive home their political point regarding the situation in the Sudan. Meanwhile, Inemo Samiama — the man nominated by Radio France International as Best World Artist — takes his game to a whole new level with his third album, Afro Funky Beats, which packs crucial cuts like "Be You Der" and "Afro Funk."

Free jazz, indigenous rhythms, funk groove, political statement: These ingredients, tossed into a shaker in Nigeria in the late '60s, provided the volatile musical mix known as Afrobeat. You can't talk about Afrobeat for more than about ten seconds without invoking the name of its founder, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He has often been compared to Bob Marley as the international face of Afrobeat, but Kuti's importance in the genre surpasses even that of Marley's to reggae. And Kuti, along with Marley and Jimi Hendrix, is among the most-recognized black musicians in the world. Kuti's son Femi carries the Afrobeat torch, and brought it to America when he toured with Jane's Addiction in 2001.