Femi Anikulapo-Kuti is a total musician. 50, and still looking very, very charming, the father of six and eldest son of Fela, on Sunday, March 17, 2013, at The Afrika Shrine, in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos, opened up to YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AZUH ARINZE, on some pertinent issues. As frank as ever, the multi-instrumentalist who is the most decorated Nigerian artiste was simply a delight to interview…
What makes a good singer?
What makes a good singer is – you must first have the ability to sing a tune, you must be able to hit the high range, middle range. You must know your weak points while you are singing, you must use your best points to do your songs.
Why is it that only few musicians can sing and also play an instrument?
Because it’s as complicated as Mathematics (General laughter). That’s why what we are having now is even very scary – we are having so many young people that are singing because of the kind of music they are playing – hip hop. They are selling sex, bling bling, bla bla bla. What do you do when you become 40? Another phase will come, then you become irrelevant – because you have got nothing to back yourself up with any more. You must really be loved as a singer or rapper to last three, four decades in a country like Nigeria. Where is the guarantee? Because you start off with your fan base and your fan base might be your generation. Your generation grows old with you, but there is another powerful generation coming. When your generation dies along the way, there is no guarantee that the next generation is going to follow you. So, you have very few musicians in Nigeria that have managed to go with the generation above them, stick with their generation and generations coming that still appreciate what they have done or are doing and one name that will always come to mind is my father who has managed to cut across the whole of Nigeria and even internationally. But every generation that comes uses him as a reference point – Ah, Fela said that, Fela did this. They keep talking about him because of his ability to sing, play musical instruments, write all his songs. So, you could say he was a full package because he played most instruments, he sang and most importantly, he wrote his songs. Now, you have singers, they can’t write their music. They can only sing so well, they get somebody that will write the music and they can just sing the song. Some people can have a good voice, but they can’t sing. You have many people like that. Even Michael Jackson bought songs. So, to get somebody that does everything, this is very, very rare. Even globally.
What is the biggest mistake that most musicians make?
I won’t call it a mistake; it’s all a learning process. I don’t believe in mistakes, I believe life is like standing on the beach – when the waves are coming, you manage it. I just see them as hurdles. Obstacles can just come and you need to overcome them. So, I won’t call it a mistake. Now, if you can’t overcome it, that’s where the problem comes. So, probably, one is when you think that maybe alcohol or drugs is what is giving you the ability to perform. If you feel that way, what is happening is that it’s really killing you. You might be having a good time because you are feeling good, bla bla bla, but you are losing touch with the reality. So, you are going to burn yourself out very quickly. I think most importantly what an entertainer or musician must understand is how to pace yourself. This can only be done by going through all these obstacles or you have somebody that loves you and will always keep on warning you on how to pace yourself. But even if you have a coach or somebody that does that, it’s very rare for the artiste to listen to those kind of people, because artistes don’t like to be told what to do. So, it’s a very complicated profession where you hardly find anybody that lasts decades. So many people drop along the way. Oh, big name, gbam! Second album, you don’t hear of the person again, because it’s so vicious and it can be unfair that everybody is telling you what you want to hear. You only want to hear the good remarks, anybody that talks bad or anything that you feel is bad, you get annoyed. It’s such a chaotic environment, this entertainment world, that I cannot even describe everything in a nutshell.
What do you like most about being a musician?
Playing my instruments, practicing. In my mind, the most peaceful time is when I’m teaching myself musical instruments.
What don’t you like about being a musician?
Ah! What don’t I like? I don’t think there’s anything I don’t like because it’s not about what I like, it’s how you define life. I believe we are here to learn. So, even if it’s something I don’t like, I have to adjust to find a way round it and how to deal with it. When you cannot deal with issues, that is when you have problems. That’s the way I see life. Some people might have a different perspective of this, but this is my own.
Why do most musicians attain success and find it difficult to sustain it?
Because of this vicious, chaotic environment I talked about. You don’t know who really loves you. I was quite lucky because I have my sister (Yemi Kuti), so I can keep on doing my work. But imagine if my sister wasn’t running The Shrine (his entertainment centre in Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos), this place would be run down. Even Yeni that is trying to make sure that this place runs has her own life; has her own family. She’s thinking about the Estate of my father, she’s doing so many things, but she has to keep The Shrine going. By the time you are talking of the generator, somebody is stealing money; it’s a very complicated issue. So, if you don’t have people you can trust – who are very rare. To find anybody that you can trust, that won’t be cheating you, that won’t be envious of you, which is very common. Because everybody will be saying, why is it you that is famous? Me too I want to be famous. Even in my band, I’ve changed my musicians God knows how many times, because all of them will be thinking, why? I can sing better than you, why is it you that is famous, you are using your father’s name. But when they now put themselves in front, they will see that it’s not easy. They drop by the way side and you never hear of them again. So, it’s such a very envious, wicked, stressful and complicated situation combined with so much negativity. It’s so unbelievable that you wonder why you want to even delve into it in the first place.
Why do most musicians find it difficult to come up with successive hit songs?
Maybe the person wasn’t a musician in the first place. Probably he’s just an entertainer. Probably somebody was writing the songs. So, you have to understand – how did the person get his hit? Did he write the song? Even if he wrote the song, did he write the music? Is he the sole owner of the whole package? I don’t want to mention names, but we now find that somebody is writing the music for this person, then they fight and everything scatters or because of that package that was so successful, something happened along the way, they broke up, and they cannot duplicate it again. And you must be one of the top, top top musician to be able to buy anybody’s song. You can buy a nobody’s song and make that song important because you already have made your name. This is very common in America or Europe. Somebody like my father will never do that, somebody like me will never do that. So, there are many issues and then to get a hit song back in our own days – even a bad song could be a hit song. We can make the National Anthem a hit song. It’s by constant radio play – pa pa pa (Demonstrates by clapping). Maybe the first day you heard it, you hated the song. But after sometime, it becomes a hit song (General laughter). So, there’s so much that goes into making a hit song. There’s money, pushing the song, bla bla bla. But then, there are songs that just become instant hits because they are great songs. Those songs never die and then even those kind of songs, you have to find out who wrote the music, who’s the owner of the song and sometimes it can be disheartening when you find out that this person sang the song, but it is not his song. When you go into the detail and the nitty gritty of that song, you that admires the singer or the music will say, so he didn’t write the song? You start to lose respect for the whole package. So, the more you diagnose that hit, the more you lose respect for the hit. You have those that can play in the studio, but they are too shy to play live. You very rarely find those that can play studio and live. Then, there are those they call the studio rats. They spend all their lives in the studio, because the studio is very sensitive. In live you can make a mistake and get away with it in many aspects. But in the studio you can’t get away with many mistakes. You can use the studio to do like magic, which you cannot do live. That is why you hear some things on your CD, and when you see the person playing live, except he brings the same CD, you will say ah-ah, this is not what I heard on the CD o! Why is it different? Because he has over-used technology to enhance that music and he cannot duplicate it when he performs live. You have to be able to know how to merge everything to give you the best.
What is the greatest thing that music has done for you?
I think it has made me a good person.
What has music not done for you?
It has done everything for me. If it hasn’t done anything, it’s that I have not lived up to expectation. Like I told you, you have to work, work, work…If you are going for the material profit, you will become an instant failure. If you are going for knowledge, you become a success. So, you have to define what you want as success. You want to sing and just make money, you become a failure because you can have all the money, but you would lose all the respect in the business. But you can have all the knowledge, you might not be rich, but you will be content spiritually and materially. So, I believe I’m content because my mind is at ease. I might not have 10 cars, houses, but my mind is truly at peace and my life.
What don’t you like about stardom?
The deceit! It’s not everybody that says they like you really likes you. You can fall victim – which I have – in many cases. Because you are forced to have a kind heart and when you have a kind heart people take advantage of you and then when you become hard, they start saying bad things about you. So, to find a balance in this again, it’s so complicated. So many people fall by the way side because of this again. Even my father had a lot of bad press. Even if they talk so much about him today, if you see the bad press he had – and I can tell you, he was tormented a lot too. So, to overcome it and still stand, it’s very complicated. Because even the people around you; you don’t know who really loves you. It’s very rare to find people that truly love you. Even your partner, you don’t know if your partner loves you. Your partner might just like you because you are famous or your money; not because of you. The artiste wants you to love him or her for who they are, not because of fame, not because I’m a musician, but because of me. And then, the closer your partner gets to you and they know that oh, you are just an ordinary human being, they take advantage of you (General laughter)…
In one of the interviews you granted us in FAME, you said you have never believed in marriage, has that changed?
I still don’t!
Don’t you feel lonely at times? Moreover, you just clocked 50 and sure need a partner…
I don’t! In fact, I don’t think I will ever be able to trust anybody. I will never be able to give any woman that chance. First, I will never be faithful and I will not even try to be faithful…
Are you serious about this?
I won’t! Because first of all, I don’t even believe a woman would be faithful to me. And why does she want to be faithful to me? You see, it’s such a complicated case and I don’t want to even think about it. First, I think it’s very unnatural. And I cannot even imagine standing somewhere and one man will say I pronounce you man and wife. Who are you to pronounce me man and wife? Who are you, a stupid idiot? You are pronouncing me man and wife. Gerrout! (Stresses it). Okay, I pronounce myself man and wife (General laughter).
So, you are going to remain a bachelor for life?
You can say I’m married. The girl I’m with now, they call us husband and wife. It’s just that we are not like others. Her parents know me, they like me, I love her parents very well, we get along, she’s not as jealous as most of my other girl friends, she knows I like women, so we understand each other. I don’t question her, she doesn’t question me. She takes care of our child, no wahala! But the minute she starts to be over-jealous, bla bla bla, we are going to start to fight. She’s the kind of person that I will say ah, that girl is fine o and she will say, should I chase her for you and I will say don’t worry, I can do it myself. The minute you cannot talk openly with your partner, there is no love. The minute you are feeling something in your mind, even if you don’t want to do it; you cannot express your thoughts to your partner and your partner cannot express her thoughts to you, what is the point? So, it’s about freedom of expression, freedom of the mind, freedom of being able to live and if that institution cannot give me that, why should I go into that institution that is about restriction. And I know that I don’t want to be restricted. I don’t see why I should restrict myself. Now, having said that, it doesn’t mean I cannot be faithful, it doesn’t mean that I’m somebody that wants to sleep around. No! It’s just that I don’t see don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t! Why don’t, don’t, don’t? What is don’t, don’t, don’t? Ah, no o! I don’t like those things. Let me be the one to do it by myself. I don’t need an institution to tell me that.
So, you like the life you live now, no encumbrances, no restrictions…
But I live with a woman…
But she doesn’t question you?
Who are you to question me? Why should you question my life? I don’t question anybody, so why question me? Have you heard any of my songs questioning anybody? And every time I’ve tried to love, they have broken my heart. From day one! They have broken my heart either because I’m Fela’s son. They have given me one reason or the other, but normally because I’m Fela’s son. I hear the parents say oh, this is Fela’s son, you want to marry Fela’s son, God forbid, pa pa pa (Marks it bad). Even my wife (Funke) that I married, when her mother knew I was Fela’s son, she said eh (Screams), no o! God forbid! She ran away to get pregnant o! And we ran away to get married. So, by the time she and her mother made friends, of course, the marriage collapsed. It’s true. Even being Fela’s son is already an issue in this our society that is full of hypocrites; that their fathers are worse than Fela. All the short-time joints that are in Nigeria, is it Fela that used to go there? No, let’s ask them (Laughter). Is it only Fela that smokes Igbo? But Fela, Fela, Fela; they won’t let us rest. 47 wives! You see, what was Fela? Fela just felt like why should I hide? Which is the same problem I have. Why should I lie? Okay, I’m popular and I now want to be sneaking from house to house or lie to my girlfriend. They will catch me. There’s no way they won’t catch me. One day her friend will tell her that this one did this or that. Even her friend will chase you! So, why don’t you just be straight forward. You see, I am very truthful. So, I don’t start a relationship with ‘you are my one and only, bla bla bla’. No! I like you very much, but the possibility that I will like somebody else is there. I tell them. Even my wife, Funke, I made this very clear to her. I don’t start my relationship based on you are the only one, I want to marry you, the apple of my eyes. I start by being very truthful. Especially when you are in the public eye, you can’t hide. Imagine if they see me at Sheraton and they see me in one other joint, one journalist will write it. With the media of today, one journalist will tweet it or put it on facebook: ah, I saw Fela’s son entering somewhere. So, already, before the coming of internet, I knew I had to be as truthful as possible. Because when you go to the media and say I am a one man one wife person, the day they will catch you, they will say one man one wife indeed. I like that you also said it – that I told you long, long ago that I’ve never believed in marriage and you are asking the same question 20 years later; you can see that I’ve not changed. Imagine if I had lied then, you will go and bring the paper and say see, it’s me that interviewed you here…
What is the nicest thing about being Fela’s son?
There’s no man I know like my father. He taught me courage, bravery…It’s hard to explain. It’s not an easy question. You see, if you fall victim to stupidity, you are a social climber, you cannot like being Fela’s son. I’ve met them all my life and I will give you one instance. One of my girlfriends, her father was a banker. The man was chasing young girls, but was telling the daughter, no, no, no, Fela’s son! When you are on the streets, people love you, people protect you, your interest is well protected. There’s no where I will not go being Fela’s son.
What do you still miss about Fela?
I miss seeing him as a grand father, because he started off being a great grand father with my sister’s daughter, Rolari who was very attached to him. Then, he saw my son, Made. My son always wanted to go and see him. My son was born in ’95, he died in ’97. But when he was born, he visited him like every week and you could see his life was now changing, acclimatizing to that way of life. And I think he would have probably been a better grand father than father then.
A lot of people didn’t give you any chance when you started. Some people would have given up, but you never did, why? Again, your first album, No Cause For Alarm was also heavily criticized, how did you cope then?
You know my son, he says that’s my best album. You see, that’s the kind of album that in 50 years time, it is going to be a reference material and people will ask what was wrong with all those people then?
Which of your songs do you like most and why?
All of them!
So, which of your songs don’t you like?
All! All! I like all and I don’t like all. I can never be satisfied in my life with any of my works.
Why do most Nigerian musicians find it difficult to break into the international market?
It’s very competitive and they are yet to understand that it’s very competitive or they either want to be copycats of the European or American industry because they look up to them and they don’t like their own names or their culture. They look down on themselves. The same thing happened to my father. I mean, it’s an institution. They go to school, they study it. All their children, they start from age 5. Then, you will just come from somewhere and just enter there and say iwo ni kini kan kini kan (you are this or that). Why is Fela who he is? Because he was not copying them. He founded his own music and they had to sit back and say whaaaooh! Have you heard that cat before, where is he from? Nigeria! They started talking among themselves. He was never mainstream, but underground. There’s no top musician in the world that wasn’t listening to Fela; there’s no top producer in the world that wasn’t listening to Fela. Then, my time came. There’s not top musician that hasn’t listened to me or is not learning from my music. I might not be mainstream, but in the industry my name is a household name. Why? Because I’m doing something unique, different and I love my culture, I love my people, I sincerely love who I am. I am not envious at all of America and when I go there, I go there taking my people, my name, my person, my everything and saying I’m proud of where I’m coming from and I present that to them. I will rather look down on them and say this is me (Hitting his chest). I am proud of who I am. I don’t go and say oh, help me. I don’t suck up to them and they like it.
You’ve been nominated for the Grammy Awards three times, how does it feel?
Is it relevant? Because when I was first nominated, they said why am I making noise; somebody had been nominated before. But my father was never nominated. I was the first to win the KORA Award, I was the first to win World Music Award, but they didn’t make a lot of noise about me. Then, I got nominated for Grammy and they said why am I making noise? When I got nominated for the second time, they said shut up, Sunny Ade has also been nominated twice. Now, I’m three, with due respect to King Sunny Ade. So, if you are talking of awards bla bla bla, I’m the highest. But that was not my motivation when I started music. My motivation was to become a good musician. I didn’t know about awards, I wasn’t thinking about awards and when I was clearing all the Nigerian awards – FAME, Encomium and all those awards, I was like ah-ah! I was even in Europe when I was clearing them. My sister was going to collect them. It meant nothing to me. Then, I won KORA. Everybody came to meet me. Hundreds of them were at the airport and I said ah-ah! I couldn’t understand what they were celebrating. Then, I won World Music, which was like a cup. I can never forget that award. Then, Grammy. People started saying Femi is nominated, he’s going to win. But I was fighting with my music – I sacked my French manager, my company dropped me and the company said I will never win the Grammy. So, I knew I wasn’t going to win, but everybody thought I was going to win. I was supposed to win, but my company had dropped me. And when your company drops you, you can never win. So, I didn’t win. But it brought me back to the reality of my life. Even if I had won the Grammy, what I’m singing and what I’m doing is more important than any award. Would my people have had electricity? Would poverty have been eradicated in my country? Would corruption have stopped?
You are constantly on the move, where does the energy come from?
Determination to excel; because when you know what failure is, you push yourself. You wake up every morning and do six hours of practice everyday. I decided to teach myself trumpet; they said I will never play it, I’m playing it. I decided to teach myself piano, they said my fingers are this, but I’m playing it. So, I can’t be discouraged. I’m the kind of person that if they say death is here, don’t go, I will go. Why? Because I just don’t know why you should be the one to tell me not to do it. Probably I got it from my father – I’m very stubborn. And now, because I have a lot of children; maybe if I had only Made (his first son) I probably would be more daring, because he’s nearly of age. But now I have to even be more diplomatic and more strategic because my youngest child is one. But sometimes I will think, was it a mistake I had this child? Because there are things I will do and I will make some people pay a very high price for some things they have done. I can’t forgive o! If you hurt me, if you take my eye, I am coming to take your head. I’m that kind of person, so everybody knows me. The children I have now; I have six. They have made me cool. I was in Rwanda recently and they taught me how to forgive. So, I’m a very changed person now. Maybe from last year…Before, if you hurt me, I will chase you forever and till I bring you down. Yes! Why will you hurt me in the first place? But I think my kids have made me a better person, calmer and after going to Rwanda, I’m now more forgiving.
At 50, what more do you want from life?
Only one thing – the success of my children. I don’t want anything in life. To see my children grow up, become adults. I’ve lived! What more do I want? I’ve had too much sex, I’ve seen money, I’ve got fame. If I didn’t have children I will be ready to die today. I’m telling you! If I had no children, what do I want to do again? To eat eba? How many eba will I eat? I’ve lived! And I know I’ve lived. So, what do I want? The only thing I want is the success of my children, good life for my children. So, I live for my children now and my fans.
NB: First published December 2013