Those who have followed his career and have experienced his music
know this for a fact: Femi Kuti never felt just satisfied with being the King's
heir. He freed himself from his father's legacy in '85 by putting together his
own band, The Positive Force, and thereby working to find his own voice. He
became, during the '90s, a renowned artist in his own right with a distinctive,
colorful and balanced style.
His records tell the story: After a short spell at Motown, he took
on the Afrobeat sound with his first international album in 1998 («Shoki
Shoki»), before rubbing shoulders with the modern urban style of his American
peers such as Mos Def and Common on the album «Fight To Win».
Returning to Lagos
he worked on rebuilding the new Shrine and released an unbelievable live
project recorded in the heat of the moment in his own venue («Live at the
Shrine», MK2 / 2004).
Finally his first studio record only came about in 2008, having found
inspiration in Paris.
This unanimously celebrated release («Day By Day») was his most successful one.
What was there left for him to accomplish from now on? To complete
the cycle, Femi felt he needed to go back to his roots, to the origins of this
burning feeling inside him which had fired all his work, and going back to the
studio where he had produced his first recordings with his father and his solo
album «Shoki Shoki».
Decca Studio, soon to become Afrodisia Records in the '70s, was the
experimenting ground for most Nigerian masterpieces of the time, including
those of Fela. «It was a very important historical place for Afrobeat and the
place have those mystical vibrations that Femi felt», recalls Sodi, his
longtime travelling buddy, and Parisian producer, who made the trip to Lagos to be a part of it.
«We knew the studio was in a bad state, with old mixing desks, ancient
equipment, we all knew the gear would not be up to the test, but we wanted to
take up the challenge. Because everyting is different in Lagos. The city is such a monster; it has an effect
on the way musicians play. The trick is to capture the Lagos stress without yielding under it
yourself». And Femi gives us further insight : « Between the power cuts and the
dysfunctional AC, we were sweating like pigs. I was playing with Sodi, pretending
to complain: We could be in a comfortable place right now, what are we doing
here? It was madness, but that's what we wanted it to be».
This record may be less carefully produced than the former one.
However this was not unintentional, but rather a conscious artistic choice,
i.e. not to polish the finishing touches and keep this afrobeat rough in its
purest form..... « Aggressive is the word that Femi uses the most when talking
about the album. This familiar Punk energy you hear is no surprise therefore
even spiced up the African way! Here, the words echo the music perfectly. « Bad
Government ». Never has Femi been so vindictive. Or his words so concise. «
Nobody Beg »: « But never has my people's condition been so serious» he
justifies. As did his idols from the 60s, Coltrane, Parker, Gillespie, his
militant spirit sometimes carries a jazzy jab that doesn't however lose any of
its intensity. « Politics in Africa ».
More than just a simple musician, the 48-year old composer has
become a true African Ambassador, in its most honorable sense. Indeed the album
recording had to be arranged around his busy schedule. For example, Femi was in
Johannesburg to sing for Africa
the opening ceremony for the Football World Cup. There he sang one of his hits
« Beng Beng Beng », and took the opportunity to meet a few of the
anti-Apartheid heroes. Shortly after, he was heading off to New York to see the famous and very
successful Broadway musical about Fela, where he also got to appear on stage,
invited by the actors at the end of the show. «It's truly extraordinary, they
really understood my father's struggle and his mindset This show has got to
travel the world, and come down to the Shrine», he says naturally.
Will we see Femi carrying out this project throughout the world?
Maybe. In the meantime, his Shrine still carries the torch week in week out, so
much so it has become one of the only last dynamic temples for live African
music. Erykah Badu, Damon Albarn, Hugh Masekala have recently made appearances,
as have the Lagos Police, who regularly raid the place, picking up and
frightening off the local crowd, as they try to close down this highly regarded
resistance venue.
