By Charles Okogene
To an average fan of Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, his house in Alagbole, Akute area of Ogun State, is where he retires to after a hectic performance both at the African Shrine and internationally like he just did recently. Where he lays his head and bond with his children.
femi kuti
But a recent visit to the place by newdawn showed that the expansively compound sitting on two and half plots of land, is more than just a home. That it is not just where he relaxes his nerves as he prepared for the next Sunday, Sunday Jump. It is a comfort zone that boasts of facilities like a mini football pitch where he engages in a football match with his children, a private gym with trade mill and other keep fit equipment, three bungalows, two duplexes and a swimming pool. Name it, he has it.
However, that, is not the real McCoy anyway. The icing on the cake is that inside the building, there a recording studio. Yes, a 32 tracks studio situated a top one of the bungalows that ought to be that of Femi’s late younger sister, Sola, who died weeks after Fela Anikulapo’s death.
The studio is perhaps where Femi and his son, Made, cook the songs they dish out to their Afrobeat music loving fans every Thursday and Sundays.
Last Wednesday, fresh looking Femi (know that he just came back from an European tour, which Omicron forced him to abort) and Yeni (whose absence from the stage has made her add some flesh) took this writer and one of their pals, whose name was given simply as Nike and who came home from his base in America on a guided tour of the multimillion naira studio, which Femi said is for private use for now.
” It is been long coming,” Femi said when asked how long he had been on the project.
“Though, I have not been here since I came back. It is for the use of Made and I. I have not thrown it open for commercial use for now,” he said with a smile of another modest achievement playing across his lips.
” It is for Made and I,” he continued “but it is Made that uses it most for now. For me, old age don dey come.” I don try.
According to him it is a 32 track studio, but it can be further adjusted because it is fully digitalised.
Below are picture from the studio.
Computer in the console room
Equipment in the console room
the studio
