"I would have been Fela if God had wanted me to be Fela," Femi Kuti says on escaping his father's shadow.

 

Femi Kuti, an afrobeat artist, has shared his experiences growing up as the son of the renowned Fela Kuti and how he forged his own musical career.




Femi recounted the significant strain he was subjected to as a child while speaking on the Afropolitan podcast:






“Everywhere—at the bus stop, at school—people would ask, 'Are you not going to be like your father?'" Will you not perform? There was too much pressure. You must resemble your dad.

However, Femi clarified that he reached a pivotal moment when he understood that he could never be anyone else, not even Fela, John Coltrane, or Charlie Parker.



"I would have been Fela if that was God's will for me. Femi Kuti had to be me.



He talked about how, after living with his father for a while and even dressing like him, he made the decision to leave and start his own band. There was backlash against that decision.



His followers flocked to me. They detested me. I was despised by the press. I couldn't even defend myself back then because there was no internet.

Femi also shared how his grandma provided him with the firm affection he required when he was about to lose concentration:



"What kind of bad musician are you?" she said. You haven't taken up your horn in the two weeks that you've been here. All night long, I sobbed. But my life was saved by those words.



In retrospect, he claimed that in order to be genuinely his own man, the battle was required:



I had to experience my suffering. I had to work for my own achievement. I couldn't even glimpse that dream because I was living beneath my father's roof.