After his last concert with Kuti and Africa 70 at the Berlin jazz festival, Tony Allen started performing extensively in Europe with his group Lagos. He decided to move to Europe too - first to London, before settling down in France. With his own ultramodern Afrobeat record Never Expect Power Always he cleared the way for his own style, characterized by energetic drum patterns, naturally. On his most recent album Homecooking, released last year, he successfully mixes Afrobeat with hiphop by London rapper Ty. Allen comments: ”Since the early days I've been trying to find things that everybody will want to listen to. I've always been pushing Afrobeat in different directions. Here's another one again, another style, almost clean but still rough, raggedy and radical.” On stage, behind his gigantic drum kit, Allen manages to create an impressive rhythmic framework to which rapper Ty can easily construct his texts. Afrobeat has gained a totally new significance.
