Back to Rock the Vote: 20 Musicians Turned Politicians

Fela Kuti

Redferns

The Nigerian creator of Afrobeat used his music to attack the military regimes that ran his country. As an activist who believed in socialism and human rights, Kuti ferociously lashed out against corruption, oppression and injustice in song and in print, avoiding censorship in the largely state-controlled media by running his columns in newspaper ad spaces.
Fela formed his own political party called MOP (Movement of the People) and tried to run for president in 1979, but the government kept him off the ballot. Fela!, a Tony-winning musical about the musician's life produced by Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith hit Broadway in 2009.