your mumi ni tio much 😁🤣🤣🤣🤣 Fela Did Not Fall from Heaven Indeed, Fela did not fall from heaven. He was birthed into a family of musicians. His grandfather, Canon Josiah Jesse Ransome-Kuti, made history with his recordings of Yoruba songs. In 1922, he travelled to London, where he recorded 43 songs with the Gramophone Company, which were subsequently issued on Zonophone discs in 1925. He is widely recognised as the first Nigerian to make commercial recordings. With this short history, Fela could easily be considered another musical generation of the Ransome-Kuti family. His father, Reverend Israel Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, did not record commercial records, but he was himself a musician and was known as the “Singing Minister.” In Ogun State, there are music genres peculiar to the culture of the people. Bọlọjọ, Apala, Bẹ̀mbẹ́, Pọ̀nsẹ̀rẹ̀ and Àpẹ̀pẹ̀ are a few, just to mention some. It is therefore not strange for someone from this kind of musical epistemology to become exceptional in his chosen career. And to top it all, he went ahead to study Western music in Britain. When Fela returned from his studies, he could not easily gain relevance within the circle of highlife musicians at the time. In fact, he was laughed at for his arrangements. He continued to experiment, and from this experimentation emerged the musical form that became known as Afrobeat. And some uncultured and untutored youngsters are questioning his creation. Instead of the young guy (Tekno) being called to order, no, his peers have joined in the senseless degradation of the musical genius of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. This generation is not the first to create a musical genre and have its authorship contested. Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister created Fuji from Were and Sakara. He went ahead to define Fuji as a combination of Sakara, Apala, Juju, Gudugudu, Afro and other musical elements. He documented this definition on his 1979 album, Fuji Reggae Series 2, where he articulated his understanding of the Fuji sound. Indeed, Afrobeats has come to stay as a music genre. But there is a distinct difference between Afrobeat, the musical form developed and popularised by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, and Afrobeats, the broader collective sound that has emerged as an identity of contemporary popular music from Nigeria and, at large, West Africa. Afrobeat has a specific history. It has a specific genealogy. It has a particular musical and political language. Afrobeats, on the other hand, is a much broader contemporary formation. It draws from multiple Nigerian and West African traditions, as well as global genres, and continues to evolve through the work of different generations of musicians. They are not the same thing. And recognising Fela’s contribution does not diminish the achievements of the present generation. Neither does the emergence of Afrobeats require us to rewrite the history of Afrobeat. A new generation can create new music without destroying the history of the music that came before it. That is the point. Stop defending nonsense jo! #smoofstarface #omokalakuta4eva #felakuti #tekno #nigeria - @smoofstarface