Femi Kuti is a Nigerian musician born in London and raised in Lagos. He is the eldest son of afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti and a grandchild of a political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat Funmilayo Ransome Kuti.
In a recent chat with Saturday Sun, the four-time Grammy Awards nominee opens up on his battles with his late dad, the recent national protest and why his marriage to Funke crashed among other interesting issues.
Read below;
This year marks 40 years of the destruction of Kalakuta Republic. Do you have any memory of the event?
I was coming back from school when I saw soldiers going there (Kalakuta Republic). I turned back, told my mother what I saw. But by the time we returned, Kalakuta had been burnt down. I thought they had killed Fela. Women were raped and beaten mercilessly. My grandmother was thrown out from the first floor and she later died from injuries sustained.
Today, people refer to you as the King of Afrobeat. How has the journey been for you?
It was never about taking over from my father but the need to build myself, find myself and achieve my own success. When I left Fela, everybody wrote me of. So, I decided to make name in Europe and America. Here people wanted me to be the replica of my father and I did not want to live in his shadow. And he did not accept the fact that I protested against him. I was disliked because they felt I was rebelling against the idol. It was never my intention to be like him. Of course, I should look like him and sound like him. If I did not, I would have to ask my mum who my father was. But I can identify myself in the chaos and that is what many people cannot do. Over the years, I have developed a strong fan base that appreciates the fact that I rebelled and I became successful. People attribute my success to him but they don’t know the story because if they do, they will know that they are lying to themselves. Anybody who gives the excuse that I am here today because I am Fela’s son is either envious or doesn’t know the story or is trying to comfort himself because he is not successful and still living under the shadow of his own parents.
Can you tell us your story?
I left my father and found myself. When I had my success with Wonder Wonder, people they said it was my father. Then, my father passed on and I did Bang Bang Bang! an international success and they couldn’t give the credit to my father. That was when they started giving me my credit. When I had my first Grammy nomination they said it was because I was Fela’s son. Many of them I found out don’t even watch or listen to me. They only read about me, hear about me and are judgmental.
Was there any time you felt like giving up after you rebelled?
No, when I stepped out, it was a matter of succeed or die. The day I stepped out, I knew I was going into the wilderness. When you make that kind of move, there is no turning back. You either succeed or die trying.
Any plans to marry again?
I have never believed in marriage. And I still don’t believe in it but I am happy I experienced it. I believe if I probably hadn’t married my wife we would still be together, and because of my upbringing, my wife and I are very close. I have a very open mind; I don’t let the marriage break-up get to me. And see what we took away from the marriage. We have a very handsome son who is doing us proud and if we did not meet we probably wouldn’t have had him. This overrides all the bad times we ever had. And we did have some good time. And I know why it did not work. When we got married we were young and then success just came from nowhere, and while I was becoming so successful, the same thing that happened to my father started happening to me.
Everybody was misunderstanding where I was coming from and piling pressure on me. Even Fela did not have that kind of success I experienced back then with Bang Bang Bang!, at that time in Nigeria. My dad never had a hit like Bang Bang Bang! Internationally, every radio station was playing it. I am out of this country for eight months in a year. At every major festival I was headlining, it was Bang, Bang, Bang! It was incredible!
The post Why My Marriage Crashed – Femi Kuti appeared first on Nigerian Celebrity News + Latest Entertainment News.
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