FELA IS NOT THE ORIGINATOR OF AFROBEAT. MAYBE TO PEOPLE IN LAGOS AND THE YORUBAS BUT I'M FROM THE EAST - SINGER TEKNO
Nigerian singer Tekno has weighed in on the history of Afrobeat and Fela Kuti’s position as one of the genre’s most influential figures, arguing that the story goes beyond one person. Speaking during an interview on HOT 97, Tekno acknowledged Fela’s impact while pointing to other Nigerian music legends who influenced the sound. Responding to a question about Fela being the father or creator of the Afrobeat sound he said; “I don’t know, to be honest. There are legends like Oliver De Coque that made pure highlife music, and highlife is also Afrobeat. So I would say for the people in Lagos and Yorubas, a record of mine that is ‘Rara’ is heavily inspired by Fela because I heard his tune and he is a legend. He stamped the Afrobeat thing on the world map.” “But there are other people that we listen to from the East, because I am from the East, and we had legends that sang some type of music that if you heard today, you wouldn’t even believe that this music was made in those ...