Artist
Tony Allen
Tony Allen is a world/ethnic artist from Nigerian. 38 releases are catalogued on Riffiter.
World/Ethnic · Nigerian · Best world/ethnic albums
- 38
- Releases
- 1975–2025
- Active years
Artist
Tony Allen is a world/ethnic artist from Nigerian. 38 releases are catalogued on Riffiter.
World/Ethnic · Nigerian · Best world/ethnic albums
Most popular
Film of Life
2014
Black Voices
1999
No Accommodation for Lagos / No Discrimination
2014
Lagos No Shaking
2006
Afrobeat Express
—
No Accommodation for Lagos
—
LA BOA MEETS TONY ALLEN
2025
There Is No End
2021
Rejoice
2020
Tomorrow Comes The Harvest
2018
Disco Afro Reedit Series
2018
OTO Live Party
2018
The Source
2017
Progress, Jealousy
2014
Nepa (Never Expect Power Always)
2014
Afrobeat Makers (Tony Allen Rhythms Revisited)
2012
Black Voices Re-Visited
2010
Black Voices Revisited (10th Anniversary)
2010
Secret Agent
2009
Inspiration Information, Volume 4
2009
HomeCooking
2004
Psyco on da bus
2004
Tony allen live
2004
Home Cooking
2002
No Discrimination For Lagos (2021 Remastered Version)
1979
No Discrimination
1979
No Accommodation For Lagos (2021 Remastered Version)
1978
PROGRESS (2020 Remastered Version)
1977
Jealousy / Progress
1975
Lagos Paris London
EP · 2024
Lagos Paris London - Instrumentals
EP · 2024
Jakelewah (Doctor L's 3 Years In Heaven Remix)
Single · 2023
Black Voices (Remixes)
Single · 2018
Wolf Eats Wolf
Single · 2017
A Tribute To Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers
EP · 2017
Meus Filhos Afrobeat Rework
EP · 2013
Black (Theme from the Film)
Single · 2009
Jealousy
EP · 1976
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1940, of mixed Nigerian and Ghanaian parentage, Tony Allen taught himself to play by listening to records made by the American jazz drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach. He began working as a professional musician in 1960, gigging around Lagos and variously playing highlife and jazz. Today living in Paris, Allen has long been acknowledged as Africa's finest kit drummer and one of it's most influential musicians, the man who with Fela Kuti created afrobeat - the hard driving, James Brown funk-infused, and politically engaged style which became such a dominant force in African music and whose influence continues to spread today. Allen had to overcome strong parental opposition to realise his dream of becoming a professional musician. "My parents were...not keen. Back then, in Lagos, musicians were more or less thought of as beggars, or worse. But I just put it in front of them. I was an electrical technician, but I wanted to make a change. My mother was never happy about it, but my father, who was an amateur musician, eventually agreed." Allen started out as a jazz drummer. "Art Blakey was my big influence, and before that, before I started club crawling, it…