A couple of years ago, Pitchfork ran a massive feature on Afrobeat called
The Indestructible Beat by Joe Tangari. It had an overview of the style and a track-by-track annotation of 100 best afrobeat songs as picked by the author. You are probably thinking: reading about it is nice, but having the music itself to go along with the article would be much better... In the spirit of a true music fan, the author, Joe Tangari - memorize that name so you know who to thank - hand-picked, ripped and compiled all cuts mentioned in the article into a 7CD megabox of ass-kicking afrofunk, which is available as a torrent (for instance,
from here), and which I will also put up on Sharebee for your enjoyment.
All tracks are 192kbps. Each archive is separate; I had to keep them under 100mb, so some tracks are out of order. The original article is included.
Africa 100 (Afrobeat Box)Pt.1, 99mb on
sharebee101 - Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa 70 - Zombie
102 - Girma Beyene - Set Alamenem
103 - Marijata - Mother Africa
104 - Segun Bucknor & His Revolution - La La La
105 - Oscar Sulley & The Uhuru Dance Band - Bukom Mashie
106 - Geraldo Pine - Heavy Heavy Heavy
107 - Super Eagles - Love's A Real Thing
108 - Orlando Julius & His Modern Aces - Ijo Soul
109 - Matata - Talkin' Talkin'
110 - Ayalew Mesfin - Hasabe
111 - Super Mambo 69 - Sweeper Soul
112 - Babatunde Olatunji - Jin-Go-Lo-Ba
113 - Dick Khoza - African Jive
114 - Orchestra Baobab - Mouhamadou Bamba
Pt.2, 99mb on
sharebee115 - Os Bongos - Kazukata
116 - Getatchew Mekurya - Yegenet Muziqa
201 - Brigth Engelberts & The B.E. Movement - Get Together
202 - Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Big Man
203 - Oscar Sulley & The Uhuru Dance Band - Olufeme
204 - Thony Shorby Nyenwi - No Wrong Show
205 - Ogyatanaa Show Band - Disco Africa
206 - Wallias Band - Muziqawi Silt
207 - Lemma Demissew - Astawesalehu
208 - Apagya Show Band - Kwaku Ananse
209 - Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70 - Roforofo Fight
210 - Monomono - Tire Loma Da Nigbehin
211 - Ofo The Black Company - Allah Wakbarr
213 - Lijadu Sisters - Orere Eljigbo
Pt.3, 94mb on
sharebee212 - Joe Mensah - Africa Is Home
214 - Bembeya Jazz National - Petit Sekou301 - Gyedu Blay-Ambolley & The Steneboofs - Simigwado
302 - Jingo - Fever
303 - Joni Haastrup - Greetings
304 - Honny & The Bees Band - Psychedelic Woman
305 - Yahoos - Mabala
306 - Blo - Blo
307 - Tlahoun Gessesse - Alegntaye
308 - K. Frimpong & His Cubano Fiestas - Hwehwe Mu Na Yi Wo Mpena
310 - Manu Dibango - African Battle
311 - Alemayehu Eshete - Addis Ababa Bete
UPDATE: a visitor pointed out that track 214 (Petit Sekou) in the third archive is corrupted. You need to download it separately here:
http://sharebee.com/794446fd