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Win Free Stuff 
WIN a FREE copy of King Sunny Ade's "Seven Degrees North"!King Sunny Adé (Sunday Adeniyi, born 1946) is by far the most popular performer of Nigerian Jùjú music. With his band, King Sunny Ade and His African Beats, King Sunny Ade became an international star across Africa during the mid-1980s, touring and gaining a significant audience in the United States and Europe as well. He is known as the Minister of Enjoyment. Born to a Nigerian royal family in Ondo, Ade left grammar school to pursue his career, which began with Moses Olaiya's Federal Rhythm Dandies, a highlife band. He left to form The Green Spots in 1967. He formed a record label in 1974, fed up with being exploited by a major label. Beginning with Juju Music, Ade began gaining a wide following as Mango Records, a subsidiary of Island Records, released his albums. He was soon billed as the African Bob Marley, and headlined concerts in the US. Soon after, Nigerian imports (mostly pirated copies) of his massive back catalog began flooding the Western market. Island, concerned about sales and Adé's refusal to include more English in his repertoire, cut him loose after his third LP, 1984's Aura. By the end of the 1980s, Ade's star began to dim, and his albums sold less, though he continued to garner critical acclaim and widespread popularity in Africa. 1998's Odu, a collection of traditional Yoruba songs, was nominated for a Grammy Award. He has also become one of the most powerful people in Nigeria, running multiple companies in several industries. He has also created a non-profit organization called the King Sunny Ade Foundation and works with the Musical Copyright Society of Nigeria. Adé was the first to introduce the pedal steel guitar to Nigerian pop music after becoming a fan of American country/western tunes. "From the very first notes, the juju music of King Sunny Ade is instantly identifiable. The musicians lock into a groove and don't let it go until the song ends--and given that the tracks on this album give all musicians a chance to stretch out (unlike, say, 1995's E Dide), that can be a while. But it's a pliable, irresistible groove, powered by the percussion and talking drums, which also pop up to punctuate and accent the music, while the Hammond organ and pedal steel guitar take most of the solos with King Sunny himself at the center of things, singing and directing his large band. It's a joyful noise they make, often quite literally, as a number of these pieces are "praise songs," part of the juju tradition ("Congratulations (Happy Birthday)" offers an idea of the praise song in English.) This is his most enjoyable record in a long time, better than the excellent Odu, and if you can resist the urge to dance, check your pulse--you might be dead." -Chris Nickson (amazon.com) --- King Sunny Ade was recently inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame at Celebrate Brooklyn's African Festival on July 2009. Sean Barlow, Afropop Worldwide's Producer, explained to the 10,000 enthusiastic fans at Celebrate Brooklyn that the criteria for selection were contemporary African artists who not only excelled artistically but who also played a big role in connecting American audiences to Africa and African culture. He said previous inductees included Youssou N'Dour, Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, and Thomas Mapfumo. He went on to say that before Youssou and Angelique and others made their US careers, there was King Sunny Ade, opening the way.
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