Legacy in Lagos

Nigeria’s Seun Kuti follows in his
father’s fierce and funky footsteps

HUMANITY BEFORE HUMANS: Seun Kuti

by ERIN MACLEOD

As part of his first major North American tour in support of his debut record, Many Things, Seun Kuti is bringing his live show to Montreal’s Nuits d’Afrique festival. The youngest son of Nigeria’s legendary Afrobeat originator Fela Kuti, and known for his own energetic and passionate performances, Seun Kuti is convinced that you need to see him on stage.

“I can’t explain my show,” he says. “It has to be seen. It’s not choreographed or nothing. It’s more natural. I try to do my best in the show, to make sure that the last gig was the best one.”

Working with his father’s band, Egypt 80, the young Kuti wants to assure his listeners that he’s not deviating from Fela’s path. “I’m an Afrobeat artist,” he says. “I really believe that Afrobeat is the future of music. Every album has to be really relevant to the time and the time ahead. The world is just catching up to it.”

Don’t be expecting any fusion of styles from Seun Kuti. “I don’t think that Afrobeat needs to add any other genre at all—nothing like pop or hip hop or soul or jazz or whatever. Afrobeat should sound like Afrobeat and all these other genres will start to sound like Afrobeat!”

This belief in the power of Afrobeat goes beyond the tunes, as Kuti sees the genre as just as much a political and social movement as a musical one. Describing his writing process, he feels his experiences drive his lyrics. “I live in Lagos, so when I look out my window every morning, I see something that has to be spoken about. And I write plenty of songs to talk about them, because I think that every problem needs to be addressed individually, I don’t believe in people bunching up stuff, putting everything under one umbrella.”

The track “Mosquito Song,” written in 2005 for the Africa Live: Roll Back Malaria event, is an example of Kuti’s pointed songwriting. “Most people were really ignorant about malaria and the extent of it. I was told it kills 6,000 children every 30 minutes. So I thought that this was something we have to talk about. And it is something that can be cured for three dollars. So why should lives be wasted like this? That’s why we recorded that song before we went to the festival.”

It’s Kuti’s opinion that more artists should take stock of their potential influence. “I feel that the world right now is in a position where people want to express themselves. That’s why Afrobeat is becoming so big. My father said, ‘Music is the weapon of the future.’ I really believe that and I see that people are using music as a weapon to express themselves, to fight back against the worldwide spread of corruption and injustice.

“The problem is that most people put humans before humanity. I think that more artists should start thinking, because I believe that if you have the power to have your words printed, to have your CDs released all over the world when you write songs, you should at least put some songs on there for the advancement of humankind.”

With H’sao at Metropolis on
Sunday, July 13, 8 p.m., $32