Fela Kuti, as Data

Every mark in this portrait is Fela. His discography — Zombie, Water No Get Enemy, Expensive Shit, Sorrow Tears & Blood — forms the shadow of his brow. Transcribed saxophone lines curve into his jaw. Polyrhythmic grids for shekere, agogo, talking drum and conga pulse where his heart would sit. Lyrics from the Kalakuta Republic, coordinates for Lagos, and the timeline of a life from Abeokuta 1938 to legacy in 1997 become the very texture of the man. Algorithmic systems seeded by Adinkra, kente and Afrobeat rhythm let the mathematics already living inside African design multiply, mutate and unfold — here, into a face the world already knows.