Yusuf Olatunji

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Yusuf Olatunji" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: general rewrite and formatting of the discography. Please help improve this article if you can. (January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Yusuf Olatunji, also known as Baba Legba or Baba L’Egbaa (c. 1905 – 1978),^[1] was a Nigerian Sakara drum player, who popularized the sakara music style.^[2] He was purportedly born in 1905 or 1906 in a village called Gbegbinlawo in Ogun State in south-western Nigeria, although there are still doubts about the location of his birth. His mid-life conversion to Islam boosted his career in Yoruba music. He was born a Christian and he hailed from Iseyin in Oyo State. He was formerly known as Joseph Olatunji. He started his career in 1937 with his first record and he joined Abibu oluwa band in 1927.

Olatunji was a friend of the Lamidi Durowoju, Jimoh Ishola (who was later hanged in the late 1980s) Raji Orire and Badejo Okunsanya. They were the rich men he mostly sang for. He also sang a lot of praise songs for some numerous prominent social clubs in Southwestern part of Nigeria. A very rich woman that goes by the name Alhaja Kuburatu Abike Adebisi known as cash Madam in Abeokuta sent him abroad for surgery.

He died on December 15, 1978, aged 74. He is survived by 4 children and 3 wives.