The son of Afrobeats pioneer Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti has denied rumors that his father and the late great drummer Tony Allen co-founded the genre. Kuti has received many Grammy nominations for his own music.
As Fela’s principal drummer and music director, Allen is generally acknowledged by both domestic and international media as one of the forefathers of Afrobeats.
Femi Kuti, however, denied the allegations in a recent video message he posted to his social media page, saying that neither Allen nor anybody else had any input into Fela’s music. He asserted that, similar to his other instrumentalists, Fela had instructed Allen in his drum approach.
According to Kuti, her father was a composer and multi-instrumentalist. He majored in music. He is an expert on his instrument. ‘Without Tony Allen, there is no Afrobeat.’ You probably already know that. Any criticism of my father has never been more baseless than that. It is completely false.
They chose to lie in order to sell Tony Allen. Indeed, he possessed exceptional drumming skills, which were imparted to him by Fela. For his drum patterns, Fela was responsible. Here it is.
We watched Fela do it when I was a kid, a teenager, and then a man. Fela documented each of his designs. 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. That just won’t happen.
“When Fela was writing, no one could make any inputs because he goes into trance while making music. Everyone in his vicinity needs to keep their cool and pay attention to his music and directions.
“So, I asked those saying Fela credited Allen for Afrobeat where he did and they can’t produce it. There is no article, recording or footage from any interview to prove it. It is impossible that Fela would make such a statement and there is no copy anywhere.