Seun Kuti, youngest son of the Afrobeat legend and founder, is just out with his seventh studio album, Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head). It's a strong set of tracks, featuring an updated lineup of the Egypt 80 band, and the requisite deep grooves and trenchant political messages. The album includes Seun's collaboration with Damien Marley, "Dey," and a percussion-driven collaboration with Zambian rapper Sampa the Great. It's fair to say that the album extends the Afrobeat stylistic range, while asolutey preserving its essence. We would expect no less from Seun!
This summer, Afropop's Banning Eyre sat down with Seun just before his show at Celebrate Brooklyn in Prospect Park. Here's their conversation.
Banning Eyre: Great to see you again. Let's talk about you. What's been going on?
Seun Kuti: Yeah, we're back on the road. My new single is out with Damian Marley.
It's a great tune. How'd that come about?
I'm not going to take his flowers. It was his idea. His team is kind of close to mine. And I've met him as well. So, he said, you know, they might be interested in being on the project. Damian wants to listen to the songs, you know. So, they're cool. And for such a historic thing, I think it was kind of easy. It was smooth. There was no friction or all these bureaucratic things, you know, artist, ego, my people, your people. It was really organic. So, I think that, for me, added to the energy of the sound.
It feels very natural. So the new album drops in October. Tell me about it.
This is volume one. I want to do volume two next year, but some people are like, "No, you have to take it easy. You wanna kill them, man? Don't kill them." You know, so, yeah, it's part of my album, which is called Heavier Yet.
Heavier Yet.
But that's not the full title. It's Heavier Yet Lays the Crownless Head. You know, because I'm tired of the world and the working class people believing in this myth that the masters of industry and the elites, the monarchs and all these bastards, have some problems. You know, "Heavy lays the head that wears the crown."F#$@ that. At least your head is lying heavy in a castle. You're there with all your servants, you know? So heavier yet lays the crownless head. All power is with the people, yes, but still, all atrocities are with the people as well. So heavier yet lays the crownless head for me is a tale of class consciousness, workers' rebellion, demystifying, materializing capitalism and imperialism, especially in the minds of African people. This is the story I'm going to tell in the two volumes and hopefully we can kill the king at the end of volume two.
There are a few of them out there that might deserve that.
Everybody has their tasks. Get in line. Each to each their own king killer, right?
So tell me about a couple of the songs.
I'm already playing them. I've been playing them for over a year.
So there are probably live versions on YouTube and stuff like that.
Probably. You know, my fans don't give a f$%#.
I see. That horse has left the barn.
Yeah. But for me, playing my songs live before I record them gives it that kind of vibe, knowing like, okay, this part of the song works this way, this works that way. But I don't know, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but by the time I'm playing the songs live, it just works already, you know, so our community is complaining as well because I'll be posting songs that I have not even recorded on Instagram.
You're not supposed to do that! (we both laugh)
F%$# this bureaucracy s%$^. Why can't people just get the music for free? And then they'll come together and build me a nice house, you know, and pay all my bills and just let me entertain them. You know, I don't need anything else. I want to work for the people. I don't need them to pay for my music, you know. They should just give me everything I need also. And I'll give them also everything I have.
Your dad always had that rule about not playing the song live once he recorded it, but that was his thing.
Yeah, recording was the last thing, because, you know, the man had already recorded over 300 songs. He had had fans from four generations. You know, you go to a show, people want to hear songs from the '80s, people want to hear songs from the '70s, people want to hear songs from the '60s. The man's like, "Listen, go out and listen to the record."
Right. "You're going to hear this now." Well, of course, when one song is nearly an hour long, yhere's not room for many in one set.
Exactly. So the set is set. But I don't really feel that way in terms of my relationship with my own songs. After I record them, after a while it starts to get boring to perform them. Yes, but that's natural.
That's why you have to write new songs.
New ones, yes. Exactly. So that's what it is. That's the cycle. But right now I have some new songs I really want to play, but we don't have time to do it with the band. I'm in my bag right now. You know, so I really want to do a lot of things, but people are slowing me down.
I've heard that story before. He's an artist ready to go, man. Go, go, go. But before we talk about the band, tell me about a couple of songs you're going to play tonight.
Oh, we're going to do "Dey," definitely. We're going to do "T.O.P." Things Over People, which is a song about materialism and the exploitation of the working people and nature by the ruling elites. The way they believe that they can grow infinitely on a finite planet without any regard to balance. And the truth about it is that we have to believe that the materialism they offer is a good enough trade-off. So that's why it's "T.O.P.", Things Over People. Because that's the mentality that rules the people at the top. Things Over People. But I kind of say it in a more interesting and artistic way on the song, direct. That's the best way.
What else?
There's "Stand Well Well," which is actually a track I wrote against this Nigerian comedian guy we have beef with.
A comedian?
Yeah, but not just him. Him and everybody that's like him. This is my favorite song on the album.
What's your issue with him?
My issue with him is: he's not funny. And there's nothing more annoying than a comedian that's not funny, so that's my issue. I'm doing this for mankind, but also, to be more serious, the song is about this trade-off I talk about. I talk about the minds of young people and the propaganda that is sold to us as African people that warps reality. In the song, I say, "We're doing the wrong things so right, and doing the right things so wrong." I don't think anybody has ever put it like that. That's my first original quote.
A lot of wisdom there.
(He sings.) "Doing right, so wrong. Doing wrong, so right." Enough said. You're going to experience it.
I look forward to it. So what about the band? How many of the guys are still there from from from Egypt 80, the band you inherited.
I didn't inherit it. I always tell you this. I didn't inherit it in the sense that my dad didn't write it somewhere like, "Okay. When I die, Seun going to get the band." I'm not a nepo baby. Okay, maybe I'm a bit of a nepo baby, but can you be a nepo baby when you get the job when you are eight? I think that's the real definition of a nepo baby. You know, because I've been in the band since I was eight. I used to open these shows with my dad. So maybe there was a bit of nepotism there that this eight-year-old kid can just get this job to open for a guy like Fela, you know, like, because he's my dad, he couldn't say no.
And basically I could sing the songs I wanted to sing, and that was basically my training. So I'd just been in the band till my dad died, and I continued being in the band, because it was either the band is dispersed and disbanded, or we stick together and work together. And we chose the latter, you know? So there was no inheritance in the sense that it was ordained by my dad. Like the whole Lion King thing.
It was more organic than that.
But probably it was destined to be.
That multi-generational feeling has always been part of the charm in your shows and recordings.
Yeah, yeah, and there's a whole new generation of the Egypt 80. And now I've even internationalized the band to match with Fela's global vision.
How so?
Fela's message and his disciples are global now. This is not like when Fela was alive. His message has inspired people globally. There are Afrobeat bands all over the world now that are his desciples. Even in death, they revere him. So I also want the band to represent that. I'm trying out this experiment now with people from all over the world playing in the band on tour with me now.
So you've brought in new people.
Yeah, new people are from France, from Algeria, from Martinique in the Caribbean. There's a few from Nigeria. You know the band leader is from Nigeria, Kunle Justice (original Egypt 80 bass player). Then my singers and myself. I'm looking to work the African Egypt 80 for our African tours and all that. I'm working over there too but I'm trying to see if I can add my own extension to the story.
Inevitably. You have to. Time marches on, right? You say Afrobeat is international now. It's bigger than ever. That's kind of a contrast to what's happening in Nigeria, isn't it? We've talked about this before, back in 2017. But what's the status of Afrobeat in Nigeria now?
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Yeah, well, I think what we've understood now as a family is we couldn't go against the tide alone, independently and individually, because there's so much investment on the other side that we just don't have. What we realized is that if we can work together we can match what they have in investment, in clout, and aura. So what we're doing now--even at Felebration, which is bigger than ever--when we play our shows now, we play together. You know, we had 20,000 people the last time we did it .
So it's you and Femi and Made all together.
Yeah. I think there were more people at that concert than at any night in Felebration. There were more people outside the Shrine than there inside the Shrine. Everywhere was like, "We have to renovate the Shrine right after the concert." The power was shut down. I'm telling you, it's crazy. It's crazy.
I believe it, man. You know, I'm involved with an organization here in New York called Musicians for Musicians. I don't know if this reached you, but we had a Roundtable Zoom talking about Fela a couple of months ago, and it was a really amazing collection. It was Ricky Stein and Sandra Isadore and Michael Veal.
I have not seen it. But as soon as I hear those names, I'll just be there.
It was a nice, you know, just remembrance and talking, and people telling stories. It was great. Lemi was there.
Lenny or Lemi?
Lemi Ghariokwu, Fela's graphic designer.
Oh, okay. I thought you said Lenny. You know, Lenny Kravitz is my executive producer on the record.
Really? What was that like working with him?
I'm moving up in life, bro. It was awesome. He was really generous with his time, his talent. He's a great guy.
Cool. Anyway that Fela roundtable was so great that there's talk of doing it again, and the idea was that if we do it again, we'd love to have you and Femi and maybe Yeni, you know, just bring in a different group of people and talk more about you guys and what you're doing now. Would you be up for that at some point?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just have to make sure that the time is right.
Excellent. Well, we'll be in touch about that. Thanks for talking and have a great show tonight.
Thanks, man.
