Afrobeat artiste,Seun Kuti, the
son of Late Afrobeat legend,
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has stated
that Afrobeat is a social,
cultural and political
movement and should not be bastardized by younger
generation of artistes. Seun was the celebrity guest of
the December 1, 2013 edition of
Rubbin’ Minds on Channels
Television where he discussed
the Nigerian music industry
and the Fela legacy. With the late music legend
having reportedly died of
AIDS, discussions inevitably
touched on issues of HIV/AIDS,
in commemoration of the
World Aids Day. Seun seized the opportunity to share his
views on the subject. He said
“As a man, he (Fela) lived a
very fulfilling life and his
manner of death is not of
relevance really. I just hope the Nigeria of back in the day,
when people had a problem
with people that were sick
with this virus is gone.” Seun, who lost both parents to
AIDS, said that the experience
has made him wiser and more
careful. “For me it’s a matter of
education as well,
understanding what it is. Having lost my dad and my
mum to this virus, it’s
something that I understand a
lot about, and it helps me
make decisions, how to be
careful and try to live a healthy social life.” Speaking about music and the
rumoured move to brand all
Nigerian music Afrobeat, Seun
emphasized that there was
more to Late Fela Anikulapo
Kuti than what Nigeria’s new generation of artistes try to
portray, with many of them
claiming to have been inspired
by him. “Everybody keeps saying they
are inspired by Fela, but I say
what makes Fela great, the
essence of the man was his
message. If you’re going to
take only his fame, women, his freedom and that he smoked
weed and things are easy, you
can’t truly say you’re inspired
by him when you leave the
essence of him aside.” Host, Ebuka, also brought up a
recent social media spat
involving Seun and Nigerian
Hip-hop artiste, Burna Boy,
who performed on stage
wearing only his underpants, an act which seemed to have
been inspired by the general
beliefs about Late Fela. Seun
said that the issue was blown
out of proportion but
nevertheless he explained his reservations. “The picture (of Burna-Boy on
stage) had a page on a blog
where they were discussing it
and everybody kept saying it
was me. So I just put it up on
my Blackberry like ‘it’s not me, I’m bald’. Then I said Burna
Boy should know better ‘cause
his dad worked with my dad
and Fela never performed in
pant.” On the task of filling his father’s
shoes, Seun said “the goal is
not to fill his shoes; the goal is
to be a good Afrobeat artiste.
That is how Fela would have
wanted me to be. Afrobeat is not about being Fela’s son
anymore, its bigger than me
and my brother, it’s a global
movement. There are a
hundred bands playing
Afrobeat, even in Israel… and among the countries that are
musical, Nigeria has the fewest
Afrobeat bands.” “Everybody is interpreting the
message in a different way and
all these people who are not
Nigerians took the essence and
the message and applied it to
their own societies. So it’s a shame when we have a society
here where people are not
applying this to their own
arts.” Seun Kuti, who is known for
performing more outside the
shores of Nigeria, also criticized
the way the Nigerian music
industry is being run,
describing it as being politicised. He, however, has a
new album due for release in
March 2014, and it is titled ‘A
Long Way To The Beginning’. Seun also spoke very
passionately about Nigerian
politics, and the new PDP and
APC alliance in a manner that
would make you think he was
a politician, but the young man said he was not planning to get
into politics “for now”.
http://channelstv.com/home/2013/12/02/fela-was-not-just-about-the-weed-and-women-seun/

because?

If it were Nigeria of today, Fela wouldn't have died of AIDS.

Ok noted

pfijacobs: because?

because wat?