Seun Kuti, son of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, started playing with his father’s band as a child, and when the Nigerian musical icon died, Seun took over as leader of the group that was by that time called Egypt 80.
(Copied from BBC)
Seun’s sound has evolved and is distinctive but has much of the excitement, energy and musicality that Fela’s music is known for. When we connected recently though it was Fela’s social and political engagement that Seun was channelling most. The conversation was wide ranging, Seun touching on everything from Nigeria’s new naira notes to the link between poor mental health and consumerism.
Seun believes that Africans are letting themselves be duped into thinking that buying big cars and designer clothes produced in the West will make them happy.
To coin a phrase – the title of one of his father’s songs – we have internalised a colonial mentality.
“How much European things can you buy, you hear it in all the popular songs, as if the reason we are here is to consume as much Gucci and Louis V as possible, as much watches and diamond chains and all these things they confuse us with. Africans don’t even know that success is actually building your nation.”
Interestingly though, in our chat, Seun fought shy of attacking the new generation of Afrobeats artists directly:
“I’m not critical of young people doing this because they are young, I’m critical of the adults that plug into this and tune into it because they don’t want to grow up.”
Seun was nominated for a Grammy in 2019, but he hasn’t had the kind of success enjoyed by Burna Boy and Wizkid who sometimes quote his father both musically and lyrically.
He told me it has only just dawned on him why he has chosen to prioritise conscious lyrics over greater popularity.
It’s because he never knew Fela as the superstar he was in the 1970s, when lyrics about black empowerment were mainstream globally and artists like Marvin Gaye were providing the soundtrack to the civil rights movement in the US.
