The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announced that Fela Kuti will be inducted into the 2026 class, making the late Nigerian musician, activist and Afrobeat pioneer the first African solo artist to receive the honor. Kuti will be recognized with the Early Influence Award at the induction ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Saturday, Nov. 14.
The 2026 class also includes Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division and New Order, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross, Wu-Tang Clan, Celia Cruz, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Gram Parsons and producer Rick Rubin, among others.
Kuti created Afrobeat in the 1960s by fusing funk, jazz, salsa, calypso and traditional Nigerian rhythms into a form that became one of the most influential musical movements of the 20th century.
He recorded more than 50 albums during his lifetime, and his music has been sampled by Nas, J. Cole, Common, The Roots and Mos Def, among many others. Beyonce incorporated his track “Zombie” into her celebrated 2018 Coachella performance. Miles Davis named Kuti in his autobiography as one of three artists he considered the future of music.
His 1976 album Zombie was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2025, the first Nigerian album to receive that honor, and turns 50 this year alongside another landmark record, Expensive Shit, which appears on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Plans to celebrate both anniversaries from the Fela Kuti Estate and Partisan Records are expected in the coming months.
Kuti’s music and politics were inseparable. A fierce critic of successive Nigerian military regimes, he endured violent reprisals for his activism, including a raid on his communal home, Kalakuta Republic, that left his mother fatally injured. He rebuilt and kept performing until weeks before his death in 1997. His funeral drew over one million people.
The induction caps a banner stretch for Kuti’s legacy. In January, the Recording Academy presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, accepted by his children Femi, Yeni, Kunle and Shalewa. An Audible podcast series, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, produced by Higher Ground and hosted by Jad Abumrad, debuted in 2025 and was nominated for a Peabody Award after landing at the top of the New Yorker’s best podcasts list for the year.
Kuti’s legacy continues through his family. His son Femi leads The Positive Force, son Seun leads Egypt 80, and grandson Mádé recently launched a solo career leading his own band, The Movement. The annual Felabration festival takes place each October in Lagos and internationally.
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