20th December, 2023
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Grammy-nominated Afrobeat singer Seun Anikulapo Kuti has said his success is not tied to being the son of the late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Seun Kuti, in an interview with Nollywood actress Iyabo Ojo, dismissed the idea that his family’s success in music is solely due to being Fela’s children.
He added that his family’s musical heritage runs deep and should not be attributed solely to his father.
“It is not because of our dad that we are successful in music. My brother, Femi Kuti is 60. I am 40. My nephew, Made Kuti, is behind us now too, and he is in his 20s. And he is the best of all of us,” he said.
“It is not just because we are Fela’s children. I mean, nobody says Fela is a musician because his father was a musician. Nobody knows that Fela’s father was a musician. My grandfather was a musician. He recorded albums, he wrote a lot of hymns. My great-grandfather was the first person in Nigeria to record a song. We came from a lineage of musicians.
“It is what we are. We are creative people. So, when people say we are successful musicians because we are Fela’s children, they are just being half clever.”