35 f Afrobeat Express
Femi Kuti has found his own original way to follow in his father’s footsteps. Jamie Renton hears about discipline.
F
emi Kuti takes to the stage like a man possessed. Backed by his powerhouse Afrobeat band the Positive Force, he rants and roars against injustice in his Nigerian homeland, in Africa, in the world, just like his father (Afrobeat founder Fela Kuti) did before him. I’ve seen Femi perform many times over the years and he can put on quite a show, but what would he be like to have a chat with?
I did wonder quite what I was letting myself in for as I made my way to an Ital- ian restaurant round the corner from the BBC Centre to interview the man when he came over to London for a day to promote No Place For My Dream (Wrasse), his new album, which finds Femi at his best. No big-name US guests or fancy-pants produc- tion getting in the way, just pure raw bursts of Afrobeat topped off by the righ- teous anger of Kuti’s lyrics. A real back-to- basics job and all the better for it. The album finds Femi both frustrated and defi- ant, hanging on to his dream of justice and equality, even as he recognises that cor- ruption and oppression are too deeply embedded to shift.
He turns out to be surprisingly mea- sured and softly spoken in person, an ambassador rather than a firebrand. His principles are evidently strong, but his voice rarely raised. The table on which he toys with a plate of pasta remains notice- ably un-thumped. Femi’s grown into some- thing of an elder statesman of the Nigeri- an music scene (he turned 50 last year) and along with his younger brother Seun (who leads their dad’s old band, Egypt 80), a standard-bearer for Afrobeat at a time when hip-hop and electronic beats dominate the local scene.
The album is perhaps the most political yet from this generally politicised artist. Every song has socially con- scious lyrics. Was this by design?
“No, it was just what I was feeling at the time of writing,” he tells me, as coffee is ordered. “Lots of my friends are without jobs and the songs were very linked to what was going on in Africa, as I still use Africa as my foundation.” Nigeria may be Femi’s home and the place he starts from, but the new album feels global. Even when directly referencing Africa, the topics it deals with (corruption, wealth, inequality etc) could be applied to almost any- where on the planet.
“That was a con- scious decision. Even the title is trying to get everybody to think in the direc- tion of finding that everlasting solu- tion to these problems, to cli- mate change… so many issues, that politicians talk about but don’t want to do anything
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