The excesses of the military regimes in Nigeria in the 70s later formed the major subject of his music. His blantant anti military lyrics brought him direct attacks by the government. He was arrested and detained many times. And everytime he was released, he came out with his head unbowed and released more songs delivered in his signature blistering Pidgin English.
This defiance and unwavering devotion to his cause helped his music became the holywrit for politically minded youths and other radicals who also experience corruption and oppression by the government. Songs like: "Zombie" "Vagabonds In Power" "Sorrow Tears and Blood" and "Expensive Shit" are eloquent testimonies of his numerous clashes with the military.

Tired of puting up with Fela's antics the military government ordered a troop of 1000 soldiers to invade and burn his Kalakuta Republic residence in 1977. He and other residents of the compound were beaten mercilessly. His 77 year old mother was thrown out of a second storey window, resulting in injuries from which she later died. "Unknown Soldier" and "Coffin for Head of State" are parts of Fela's response to that mindless and widely denounced attack. Successive regimes continued to persecute Fela with General Mohammadu Buhari sentencing him to a 5 year jail term for allegedly trying to export foreign currency on his way to a concert in America. Other aspects of the iconoclast's life was his unbriddled use of Marijuana and uncontrolled sexual adventures with scores of women without any form of protection. His notorious lifestyle and anti government lyrics added to the myth of Fela the great musician. By the time he died, he insisted that he had stopped playing Afrobeat, preferring to call it African Classical Music with songs like "Overtake Don Overtake Overtake" "Underground System" and "Just like that". His style however still resonates in the music of scores of young musicians who obviously do not know what to do with it, and won't evolve their own style. Outside Nigeria, other artistes have also taken inspiration from Fela, notably American saxophonist Branford Marsalis who used a portion of Fela's "Beast of No Nation" for his own "I know why the Caged Bird sings". The Legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti died of AIDS related complications on August 2nd 1997. Fela In His Coffin