Afrobeat musician, Made Kuti, has added his own voice to the ongoing debate as to the difference between Afrobeat without an ‘s’ and the one with an ‘s’.
Watch out for my next album, Made Kuti tells fans
Made, who is the first son of Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, himself an accomplished afrobeat musician who is still spreading the gospel of the genre of music all over the world, is of the opinion that the difference between the two versions of same genre of music, is in commercialisation, which has led to reduced instrumentation and complexity of message on the part of pioneers of Afrobeats.
Made Kuti
Hear Made who is also grandson of the legendary late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the founder of Afrobeat, which is now been balkanised in the name of commcialisation.
” I think that afrobeat is very similar to the early days of the development of jazz music and eventually became more and more commercialised like hip hop and rap. That is the role afrobeat is playing in Nigeria. Afrobeat is so rich, musically, that you can extract and restructure it in so many ways and it still stands as a strong genre of music. I think that what people have done is that they have commercial it in a very specific way, they reduced instrumentation and maybe reduce the complexity of the message in afrobeat. The reason they are doing that is, of course, for commercial. I think afrobeats is intense commcialisation of afrobeat. I don’t think is bad per se, I just think they have to exist an even playing ground in the business sector for both genres of music. There has to be an avenue for people who do not necessarily play commercial music to have the same funding.
He also believes that the media ought to both equal attention by saying “TVs and media personalities need to piooner the ‘musicalities’ of afrobeat without the s and to see what musicians, drummers, saxoponists are doing and to know that just focusing too much on commercialisation is very dangerous to the history and culture of the style and if you take away what is fundamental is the same as modern western world; if they were to only give attention to their pop and commercial music and totally disregard the classical era , those institution still exists to maintain the importance of that genre of music, so I think it is for those in business to that know that all those institutions still exist for afrobeat musicians and any other genre of music that is not commercial; to have a platform in the same way like commercial music and share in the money that is pumped into the commercial scene even, though, I understand the commercial scene is bringing in a lot of money. Is like people saying I do not like jazz but how much of jazz has they listened to? If you do not have access to listen to it and understand it, there is no way for you to appreciate it. So it is different but can exist together,” he said.
…Watch out for the full interview.
