Babatunde Olatunji (April 7, 1927 - April 6, 2003) was a Nigerian drummer.

Born in the village of Ajido, Nigeria, a member of the Yoruba people, Olatunji was introduced to traditional African music at an early age. He read in Reader's Digest magazine about the Rotary International Foundation's scholarship programme, and applied for it. He came to the United States of America on the Rotary scholarship in 1950 and was educated at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

After graduating from Morehouse, Olatunji went on to New York University to study public administration. There, he started a small percussion group to earn money on the side while he continued his studies. He won a following among jazz musicians, notably creating a strong relationship with John Coltrane and Columbia Records A&R man John Hammond who signed him to the Columbia label in 1957.

In 1959 Olatunji released his first record on Columbia, called Drums of Passion. Olatunji favoured a big percussion sound,

Olatunji's subsequent recordings include Drums of Passion: The Invocation (1988), Drums of Passion: The Beat (1989), and Love Drum Talk (1997). Olatunji also recorded with Cannonball Adderley on his African Waltz album, Horace Silver and with Max Roach and Randy Weston on the pivitol Freedom Now Suite aka We Insist and with Grateful Dead member Mickey Hart on his Grammy winning Planet Drum projects and with Muruga Booker and Sikiru Adepoju on Circle of Drums (2005).

Olatunji was also a music educator, and invented a method of teaching and recording drum patterns. He taught at the Esalen Institute in California starting in 1985 until his death from diabetes in 2003.