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Beasts of No Nation

'Beasts of No Nation' is a 1986 album by Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti and his Egypt '80 band.

'Beasts of No Nation' is the first full length album created by Afrobeat superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti and produced by Wally Badarou in 1986. It would not be released in the United States and Europe until 1989. The album was Fela's first subsequent to his release from a grueling two year prison term served after his arrest and immediate imprisonment on trumped-up foreign currency violation charges when attempting to leave Nigeria in 1984 for concert appearances abroad.

Like many Fela recordings the album consists of two long tracks; one each covering the entirety of a vinyl record side.

The album contains two compositions:

The 'A' side of the vinyl record consisting entirely of the song 'Just Like That' written by Fela Kuti and performed by Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 22:54 in length

The 'B' side of the vinyl record consisting entirely of the song 'Beasts of No Nation' written by Fela Kuti and performed by Fela Kuti & Egypt 80 16:20 in length

Primarily the 'Beasts of No Nation' album is a rambling discursive, though certainly cogent and affecting, anti-apartheid screed delivered over the artist's trademark Afrobeat sound. Its cover shows among other images the faces U.S. President Ronald Reagan, UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and South African Prime Minister Pieter Willem Botha with vampire teeth. Venomous and angry lyrics express outrage at the mendacity and duplicity of foreign leaders who decry apartheid in South Africa while tolerating and remaining silent over human rights violations all over the world including in Fela's homeland of Nigeria.