Femi Kuti dispenses life lessons on his new 10-song album.
Femi Kuti sits in a modest room, cool and calm. On this Zoom call with OkayAfrica, the 62-year-old afrobeat legend speaks with the agility of a man assured in his craft. In a few days, he will release his eleventh body of work,Journey Through Life. As we begin our conversation, we first explore Kuti's intent behind the album title.
"I just thought it was important to talk about things that have guided me throughout my life," says Kuti, "that's why it's called 'Journey Through Life.' Just before the recording, my daughter had an operation and everywhere was just so … we were all very confused, everywhere was so emotional, and her bravery was part of the inspiration. The family was so tight and together in this period, and I thought it was important to sing about these virtues."
If you listen closely, you can hear the communal energy that flows through the 10 songs on the album. Vibrant percussion blends with bright guitar work on the titular track, "Journey Through Life," in which Kuti sings about the personal and familial ideals he speaks passionately about. "Keep all your loved ones by your side," he sings in his unshakable voice, a sweet salvo that soars with fiery purpose when required.
That energy often emerges when Kuti tackles the corruption of the Nigerian political class, as he does in "Chop And Run" and "Politics Do Expose Them," where he highlights the wrongdoings of politicians. Like a watchman from his tower, Kuti stands for the conscience of society.
"I just thought it was important to talk about things that have guided me throughout my life," says Kuti about his new album.
Photo by TheLoba
"We're the ones that make up Nigeria," Kuti affirms. "All our issues, our joy, everything works hand in hand. I think I've understood long ago that this problem won't be solved in my lifetime. You see, when you're talking about not just Nigeria's problem but Africa's problem, you're talking about 400 years of slavery, a hundred years of bad, corrupt, evil African government, Western influence, greed, so it's not going to end in 50 years. It's not possible."
Highlighting the motives of pan-African leaders such as Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X, he says that anyone who wanted Africa to grow was eliminated.
So why sing at all? The veteran knows it's impossible to change the world, so he has recently turned to more personal matters. "I think I would be quite stupid to think I can solve Africa's problem with my music," he scoffs. "But if you listen to the tracks, you'll see a record called 'Work On Myself.' The way I look at life is: 'Why do we like to superimpose our ideas on other people?' We need to superimpose those ideas on ourselves to make ourselves better. Probably that's the objective of life."
Journey Through Life is a compilation of Kuti's ideals. His political thoughts might occupy the frontline, but they stand visibly beside his musical mastery. Whether it's his early recordings after forming the Positive Force band in 1986 oralmost breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest saxophone note in 2017, it's remarkable that Kuti has always continued making music. Nearly stoic in his dedication, he tells us it's a fight against monotony.
"It's very important for an artist not to remain stagnant or monotonous," he says. "Every project of mine, I try to do something different, or else it would be boring. Age and practice help you grow, so I still practice. I still do a lot of work, and hopefully, my sound will mature with age as time goes by. You see, music is like a flower. You have to nurture it; you have to give it water and sunlight, or else it will die. Your music will die off."
On "Corruption na Stealing," he moves beyond his famous baritone vocals, singing in a near-falsetto that shows just how impressive a singer he is. Amidst the grungy Afrobeat groove, which instantly situates listeners in Lagos' Afrikan Shrine, the musician brings to life one of the transcendent problems of African society. In the second verse, his phrasing takes after contemporary styling, as he upholds that "when money thief, we must find the thief to call am thief," however recognizing that the same rules are bypassed for the rich and influential, with the advantage of "big English to add to the thing."
During our conversation, Kuti goes into long analyses of the social world, all of which tie back to his life’s journey. Education, he infers, used to mean more than just certificates — it had to do with virtues.
"Nowadays, we have a lot of lousy professionals," he says. "In a classroom of twenty students, if one child fails, everyone fails. Maybe that guy who came last, or doesn't know it, probably would have become a surgeon if we had taught him well. He would probably treat one of us in the future, but we're making fun of him and bringing him down. For me, the teacher is wrong, and everyone in that classroom is wrong, for that child to fail. What kind of education is that? The African community is old. We grow together. Everybody has the potential to be successful; everybody is important in society. Everybody has a problem to solve."
Creating such a thematically and sonically rich work four decades into one's career is quite rare in music; furthermore, in the Nigerian music scene, where legacy is often attributed to the old, the dying, or the dead. For the Anikulapo-Kuti family, who have commandeered one of the strongest cultural legacies in the world, it seems fitting that an artist and personality like Femi Kuti would release this project now, four years after a joint project with his son,Made Kuti.
Our conversation ends with me asking about the importance of these familial connections. "I think legacy is important in that sense," he says. "But you don't force people to do what they don't want to do. Made did. He's playing music because he wants to. I have seven children. He's the only one ... Okay, one of the girls is showing interest, I don't know if she'll show it at the latter stage of her life. All of them have studied music, but the rest don't want to play music."
"To play music, you really have to be sure," he says. "It's not a bed of roses. You have to find your passion; when you discover what you love, even during tough times, your dedication will make time fly. You won’t even realize where the last 20 years have gone because you’re so engaged in your work. And if you even become successful, you'll see it in a different light. It's not about material things. In my family, success is never weighed by wealth; rather, it’s about your commitment to your work and the perseverance you demonstrate over time. This is how I see my life, and this is how Fela lived his life."
