Femi Kuti, who is the son of late Afrobeats pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has refuted the claims that the late legendary drummer, Tony Allen, co-pioneered the genre with his father.
Allen is widely credited by both local and foreign media as a co-pioneer of Afrobeats for his work as Fela’s lead drummer and music director.
However, speaking in a recent video message shared via his social media page, Femi Kuti dismissed the claims, claiming that Allen or anyone didn’t contribute to Fela’s music.
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He claimed that Fela taught Allen his style of drums, just like his other instrumentalists.
Kuti said, “My father was a multi-instrumentalist and composer. He studied music. He knows every single part of his instrument. You probably have read that they said he said, ‘Without Tony Allen, there is no Afrobeat.’ That is the biggest bullsh*t ever said about my father. It is such a big lie.
“They tried to sell Tony Allen so they decided to lie. Yes, he was a good drummer but Fela taught him his style of drums. Fela came up with all his drum patterns. We saw it.
“I was a child, a teenager, a man, we saw Fela do it. Fela wrote all his patterns. I keep telling them, why didn’t Tony Allen tell us which songs he did for Fela? He couldn’t because there was no song that Fela asked him to put the drum pattern for him. It is impossible.”
Olufela Olufemi Anikulapo Kuti, popularly known as Femi Kuti, is a Nigerian musician born in London and raised in Lagos. He is the eldest son of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti and a grandchild of political campaigner, women’s rights activist and traditional aristocrat Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.
