Maverick musician Seun Kuti has cautioned Afrobeats artists against drawing comparisons between themselves and his late father, the legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
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Seun Kuti criticised the growing trend of some Afrobeats stars referring to themselves as a “modern-day Fela” simply because they sample his music or are influenced by his sound.
According to the Grammy-nominated singer, he has no issue with artists sampling or drawing inspiration from Fela’s work, but strongly opposes direct comparisons between the Afrobeat icon and contemporary Afrobeats musicians.
Seun Kuti emphasised that sampling Fela’s music isn’t tantamount to equal status with him.
Speaking in a recent episode of the Hits Don’t Lie podcast, Kuti said, “A few people have done good samples of Fela’s music. But the only critique that I have is that sampling Fela doesn’t make you Fela.
“So, people should stop saying that they are my dad. That is crazy. It crazy when people say that they are the ‘New Fela.’ Where is the ‘Bob Marley’? It is only in Nigeria you hear such. We so wild stuff here. People are wild.”
Several Afrobeats artists including Wizkid and Burna Boy have drawn comparisons with Fela after sampling him on multiple occasions.
Street-hop artists such as Bella Shmurda and Portable have publicly referred to themselves as “New Fela”.
Rapper Olamide sparked controversy late last year after declaring Wizkid “the greatest Afrobeats artist after Fela”.
