There are albums that extend traditions, and then there are albums that reimagine them for a new century. You No Fit Touch Am, released in 2015, sits firmly in the latter camp. Dele Sosimi’s journey began as a teenage keyboard player in Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80, where he absorbed Afrobeat at the source — its polyrhythms, its politics, its pulse. Later, he would help carry that flame through his work with Femi Kuti before launching his own projects. By the time You No Fit Touch Am dropped, Afrobeat was at a crossroads: globally recognized thanks to a wave of DJs, crate-diggers, and revivalists, but often in danger of being diluted into clichés. Sosimi’s record wasn’t nostalgia. It was a reaffirmation of Afrobeat’s complexity, its spirit of resistance, and its capacity to dance across cultures. It arrived as a reminder that Afrobeat was never just groove music — it was, and remains, an operating system for liberation.

The production of You No Fit Touch Am was as much about spirit as it was about sonics. Recorded in London, where Sosimi has been based since the ’90s, the album brought together a core of seasoned Afrobeat musicians who understood the music’s DNA. Produced by the ever-astute Benedic Lamdin (Nostalgia 77), the sessions balanced analog warmth with crisp modern edges, making the record feel both timeless and contemporary. Horn sections blaze with authority, percussion layers in hypnotic waves, and Sosimi’s Fender Rhodes locks everything together with both elegance and grit. Vocal call-and-response — always central to Afrobeat — is handled by a tight ensemble that channels the energy of Lagos while rooted in London’s multicultural landscape. Rather than dilute Afrobeat for Western audiences, Sosimi doubled down on its density: ten-minute tracks, no shortcuts, no compromises. It’s a record that trusts listeners to give themselves over to the flow.

Zooming in on the essentials, the title track “You No Fit Touch Am” sets the tone. It’s a statement of defiance, a rhythmic incantation reminding us that some truths, some spirits, are untouchable. The groove builds slowly, layer by layer, until it becomes a rolling river of horns, keys, and percussion. “E Go Betta” flips the script toward hope: Sosimi invokes the Afrobeat tradition of optimism in the face of hardship, delivering lyrics that are both mantra and medicine. “Na My Turn” shows the democratic spirit of the music — everyone gets their say, from horn blasts to vocal chants, weaving into a fabric that insists on collective voice. “I Don’t Care” plays like a challenge, fusing a defiant message with a groove so tight it’s impossible to resist; it channels the Fela ethos of speaking truth without apology.

Another gem is “You Know (Extended)” — expansive, hypnotic, and cosmic. This is Sosimi at his freest, pushing Afrobeat beyond the dancefloor into transcendence. It nods to the psychedelic openness of Fela’s Expensive Shit era while carrying the sophistication of Sosimi’s jazz-leaning keyboard work. “Where We Belong” feels almost like an Afrobeat prayer, grounding the record in a call for unity and belonging that transcends geography. Each of these tracks demonstrates Sosimi’s dual role: faithful custodian of Afrobeat’s roots and visionary who reshapes it for a globalized, borderless 21st century.

The legacy of You No Fit Touch Am is still unfolding, but its importance is already clear. It anchored Sosimi’s position as one of the foremost keepers of the Afrobeat flame, not as a museum curator but as an innovator. DJs embraced it, musicians studied it, and fans danced to it, recognizing in its grooves the unbroken lineage from Lagos to London to everywhere Afrobeat now travels. Nearly a decade later, the record feels even more urgent. As political struggles, inequality, and cultural clashes persist worldwide, Sosimi’s music insists on joy as resistance, groove as a weapon, and memory as fuel for the future.

So why should you listen to You No Fit Touch Am today? Four reasons. First: because it’s Afrobeat at its purest, played by someone who lived and breathed it with Fela himself. Second: because the grooves are both hypnotic and explosive, able to move body and spirit in equal measure. Third: because its messages — resilience, hope, defiance — remain universally relevant. And fourth: because it’s a reminder that some music doesn’t just entertain; it organizes, it empowers, it transforms. You No Fit Touch Am is more than an album. It’s a transmission therefore, are you ready to tune in?

Tracklist — You No Fit Touch Am (2015)

1. E Go Betta

2. You No Fit Touch Am

3. I Don’t Care

4. Where We Belong

5. Na My Turn

6. You Know (Extended)