Femi Kuti, the renowned Afrobeat musician and son of the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti, has opened up about the pressure he faced to emulate his father.
In a recent interview on the Afropolitan podcast, Femi also revealed the difficult decision to leave his dad’s band to discover his own artistic identity.
The 63-year-old singer disclosed that a lifetime of external expectation began in his school days.
“Growing up in school, everybody would be like ‘Are you not going to be like your father? When are you going to be like your father? Will you not play music?’ The pressure was that you must be like your father,” he said.
“If I wanted to play music, I had to be Femi Kuti. I used the same mathematical thought that I cannot be Fela. I started wearing the same outfits because I used to stay with my mother and then ran away to stay with my father.
“This was probably the happiest time of my life. The freedom was incredible. He used to dress me like himself. I was like mini Fela.”
Femi said leading his father’s band for two years while Fela was jailed during Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime exposed him to crucial knowledge and a stark realisation.
According to him, the epiphany led to a defining act of independence: resigning from Fela’s band and refusing to join a US tour, despite offers of a tripled salary.
The singer said the decision was met with fierce backlash from Fela’s devoted fan base and the press, making it a profoundly difficult period.
“I just thought I would better look for myself fast, or else I am going to be a very unhappy man. The minute I started to do that, some people started to see the change and started to resent those actions,” he said.
“One was that I left back to my mother. I formed my band, and his fan base descended on me. The press hated me. It was very difficult to find a good write-up about me. There was no internet at this time, so I could not defend myself.
“His management told me I should follow them to America and promised to triple my salary. I told them I had made my decision.
“Being under my father, I did not have any possibility of my life, including having children. I saw my life in his life.”