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During the golden age of Nigerian music in the 1970s, as thousands of records were produced in a wide spectrum of styles and marketed to an immense audience of ardent consumers, very few people—including the producers of the music themselves—seriously entertained the possibility that any of these popular entertainments could be considered as “Art.”

Enter the multifaceted artist Tunji Oyelana.

Equal parts singer-songwriter, actor, bandleader, dramatist, comedian and academic, Oyelana elevated the realm of pop music by infusing it with the poetic storytelling of Yoruba folklore. Backed by his crack backing group, The Benders (named for their ability to traverse--and blend a variety of styles) Oyelana blended the fashionable sounds of highlife, afrobeat, afrorock, funk, calypso, juju and reggae and transformed them into something timeless and utterly unique.

Tunji’s first records came out in 1969 but it wasn’t until two years later that the first