Femi Kuti
The eldest son of Nigerian ‘afrobeat’ pioneer Fela Kuti, singer-songwriter Femi Kuti was born in the glare of the public spotlight, and has remained in it ever since. A fierce political activist, Fela had frequent run-ins with the Nigerian government during his career, and was notoriously thrown in prison during 1984 on a spurious currency charge. Taking inspiration from his father, Femi has also spent much of his career devoted to political and social causes, although his religious views differ significantly. After nearly three decades of recording and performing, Kuti has become a highly influential figure in African music, and recently played an exciting and inspirational set at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa.
Although born in London, to parents Fela and Remi, Femi Kuti grew up in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria. After his parents split, Kuti lived with his mother for some years, before moving in with his father in1977. A year later, Kuti quit school to join his father’s band, Egypt ‘80, playing alto sax before eventually leading the group after his father’s imprisonment. After Fela’s release in 1986, Femi left the band and formed his own group, Positive Force, which continued the ‘afrobeat’ style developed by his father. With total membership numbering seventeen, Positive Force included guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, two percussionists, a six piece horn section and four singers. As the band’s name suggests, Femi’s songs focused on political themes that were similar to those of his father, but with a more upbeat angle.
Although successful in his own right, Femi still found it difficult to escape from the shadow of his father. It didn’t help that Fela was initially sceptical about his son’s music, although he eventually warmed to it during the early 1990s. Between 1988 and 1994, Positive Force recorded two albums in Nigeria and made six tours of Europe, before recording a third album in Paris and debuting in the U.S. at the Africa Fête tour during 1995.
However, it wasn’t until after his father’s death in 1997 that Femi’s career really took off. Now the main proprietor of ‘afrobeat’, Femi was hot property, and bagged a record deal with MCA after the release of his 1998 album, ‘Shoki Shoki’. Femi toured the U.S. in the early years of the new millenium, and built on his rising fame by collaborating with the likes of Mos Def, Common and Jaguar Wright to record his fourth album, ‘Fight to Win’, in 2001.
Kuti spent the rest of the decade recording and performing worldwide, building up to a busy year in 2008 when he worked on the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, collaborated with Brett Dennen to release ‘Hope for the Hopeless’, and recorded solo album ‘Day by Day’. Kuti is without doubt the most popular Nigerian musician in the business today, and was recognised for his achievements in 2010 with a second nomination for a world music Grammy award. Although he has been in the business a long time already, there’s surely much more to come from this multi-talented Star of Africa.
