Femi Anikulapo Kuti recently spoke to Charles Okogene and Lukmon Akintola on his Grammy nominations and why he won’t attend the award which holds tomorrow at the Staple Center, in the United States of America.
Femi Anikulapo Kuti
Will you be in America for the Grammys?
Most likely not; what I want to do is to kill two birds with one stone. My sister is going to be in America for the launching of a very big documentary on my father, Fela, so since she will be there, I am trying to convince her to spend four extra days after the launching to attend the Grammy for me. I think that saves cost for me, I think it is better financially, for her to represent me. In those days, 10 years ago, record labels/companies would finance musician’s Grammy attendance, now the artiste has to pay his or her way. And now, the artiste does not sell. Those that used to sell two million CDs now sell maybe 100,000. Everybody is downloading all our work. I have discussed with my sister and she is willing to do that for me and that saves me a lot of money.
Will she be allowed into the hall?
The label has agreed to pay for her ticket; she is supposed to go with my ticket but the law of Grammy is that only the artiste is allowed that free ticket. If the artiste goes with his or her manager, I believe that the manager or whoever accompanies the artiste has to pay for their tickets. That is not the problem. The real challenge is flight ticket from Lagos to New York and accommodation in Los Angeles. If I go to Los Angeles, I will not stay in a cheap hotel. Me sef I have standard and if I cannot meet my standard, I will rather sit in my country and suffer. I don’t compromise my integrity in that aspect.
But unfortunately some Nigerians do not want to understand.
Is this why your friends are all over twitter saying that you shun Grammy. Or your decision not to attend is because you are not sure if you will win?
I don’t think those on twitter are my friends; I think they are looking for how to make their blogs interesting so that people can read them. My friends will look at it economically like I am looking at it. Let us be reasonable; it is not confirmed if I will win, there is no assurance I will win; I appreciate the people that were nominated in the same World Music category with me; they are great musicians – the band from South Africa, Ladysmith Black Mambazo with the album Live: Singing For Peace Around The World, Savor Flamenco with his album Gipsy Kings (incidentally, Flamenco is on the same Knitting Factory Records like me). Ravi Shankar from India; he won the last Grammy. He won it with The Living Room Sessions. It is the part two that has been nominated now. Most likely he will win. When I look at it objectively, I know I have a great album, there is no doubt, No Place For My Dream is probably my best work; I believe so, many of the critics believe so. Now I will spend about $5000 to go to the Grammy, let’s be objective, everything I do in my life I think of my family. We are in a time that is so difficult to make money and I have got school fees, feeding and other bills to pay. I will now take $5000 from my savings to go to America because of Grammy and then end up not winning. Don’t you think I am a foolish man? If I now see somebody that is capable and who is already in America and who has agreed to represent me, instead of spending $5000 she may just probably say ‘pay for my accommodation.’ So if someone is doing that for me why should I not grab that opportunity? If she wasn’t there, the next alternative be for the recording company to represent me or they will pay for my flight ticket to attend? But I know the recording company will probably say ‘no, we are not’ or they will probably say ‘Mr. Kuti, let us look at it objectively. You know your sales have not really been that great and we have spent a lot of money on promotion. It is best we represent you. I hope you don’t mind’? And they will expect me to say ‘I don’t mind’. So if she doesn’t go, they will go. In show business, everybody, except people like Maddona, Jay –Z or Beyonce, is cutting cost. The last decade has been problematic for everybody – financially. Look at Europe; if they told Europeans that they will be in this kind of financial crisis they are now, they will not believe. Before, everybody used to talk of problems of Africa but now the talk has shifted to Greece, Spain and France. I know a lot of my European and American friends that are broke; I mean broke. And when a European tells you ‘I am broke’ he is not joking. When he is living on social security, it is a big deal to them. In the 1990s nobody knew that Europe will go broke. So, right now, everybody is cutting his coat according to his cloth. So I cannot waste money on such venture. Though, I am happy that I am a nominee. This is my fourth time and I think it is a big deal but am sure I will win? God has not spoken to me that I will win and even if God has assured me that I will win, I must think of the financial implications of going to America for the award which will cost me nothing less than $4000 to $5000 to make that journey which is more than a million naira. That can do so much for me in Nigeria. And if I win, Charles, we will just get drunk and if I lose, I will be happy that I have been nominated four times and I will wait for my next album to be nominated again.
Whether you attend or not, what do you think are your chances of becoming the first Nigerian to win a Grammy?
I don’t think my chances this time are brighter than the previous times. I think Day By Day stood a fantastic chance when it was nominated but the award went to an American musician who to our surprise was added into the World Music category. I though the album, Fight To Win which had people like Moss Def, stood a great chance too. Everybody believed that year that I will win; that year I attended but before then I had sacked my French manager. And my recording company in France had equally dropped me but they did not notify MCA which was their sister company in America and which had already submitted the album for the nomination. So when it became a big deal that I was nominated, the French company called MCA to say ‘we have dropped this artiste’. So on getting to New York, nobody was there to meet me and I knew immediately that I wasn’t going to win because I didn’t have any backing. The recording company that put me up for nomination has abandoned me. I was there by myself with my lawyer alone. Though, everybody that saw me on the red carpet kept saying congratulations, you are going to win’ but knew I wasn’t going to win. The album was a big hit with big names like Mos Def, Common and Jaguar Wright featuring on it. De Angelo’s bassist played in it, many accomplished producers worked on it and everybody thought that was it but it wasn’t. So, this time, I think that it is most likely I will not win like those previous times I thought I will win. But I do know that No Place For My Dream is the best work that I have done. When I consider people nominated alongside with me, my chances, I think, are very slim. The South African band has been nominated over 13 times and I think they have even won it but they were never in World Music category. They were in Traditional Music category before now but that category has been abolished and now they are in the world music category. Since they were brought to World Music category, they have not been able to win because they now compete with live bands and people like me. They get nomination anytime they release an album. So this could be their first time of winning. Gipsy King, I know them; they are a very good band. I think the only chance I have, if I look at it critically, is that this is my biggest and greatest work – composition wise, lyrics and production. It is super great; when you listen to it the clarity is excellent. Sodi (his French producer) did a very good job; so I think it stands the greatest chance in that sense.
The title of the album is quite deep, is it a reflection of your thought?
Yes; and also what I went through while growing up. When I left my father’s band I set out to achieve this dream and everybody kept saying ‘you can never achieve this dream; you will never get there. Look, forget it; Malcom X is dead, Martin Luther King died, see what is happening to your father. Why do you think your own will be different?’ and I kept saying ‘I must follow my dream’. Though, these were discussions among friends, all I did in the album was to summarise the discussions that there is no room for my dream because if you purse it, you may end up a dead hero. Corruption will always be there; there will always be war and so on. That is what the album is saying not me.
You are so passionate about this album, if one accuses you of blowing your trumpet how would you react?
I don’t think it is about blowing my trumpet; I am a very objective person. If you ask me to be critical about my work I will tell you where I think I have failed many times. However, I don’t think No Place For My Dream is my best work. I think Africa For Africa might stand a better chance but production wise, it beats Africa For Africa which earned me my third nomination. When Africa For Africa was nominated I was surprised because technically it wasn’t sound. So they must have nominated Africa For Africa because musically, all the horns parts were sound; I knew it was sound and any musician will tell you that this is a great album, musically. Production wise, I recorded it in Nigeria, so it lacked the technical flavour that will win a Grammy. That it didn’t win, I wasn’t surprised but that it was even nominated, I was a bit surprised but I quickly reasoned that they must have loved the compositions in the album. Composition wise, Africa For Africa will stand the test of time like No Place For My Dream. No Place For My Dream is technically sound; I know the amount of work that was put into it. When you listen or read what international critics have said about the album you will agree with me that it is a great album. Most of the critics have scored it five over five, four over five. In fact, the lowest it got is four over five marks from people that are schooled in critiquing music and most of them don’t like the musician and if they give any musician a pass mark, it means they really appreciate what such artiste has done. So when one factors all these, it is not like I am blowing my trumpet, I know it is a great album.
What do you think you are doing right that has earned you four Grammy nominations in the last 10 years?
Probably I am good; however, what I know is that I work hard. I don’t cheat when I am writing my music; I don’t copy, I don’t say because I am Fela’s son, I am going to take out of his music to enhance my creativity. I will be 52 this year and I still do six hours of rehearsal every day, no matter how tired I am. I live, eat, drink music and I don’t take a holiday. I think probably all these have a hand in the nominations. I have maintained my band since 1986. All these are in my CV and anybody that is following my career will say ‘this man has been on the world scene since 1986.’ I started my international tour in 1988 and there is no year my band has not been out of this country touring and promoting African music. On the world stage there is no festival I have probably not been on, there is no club I have probably not played in, there is no big article I have probably not had; so I have tried to maintain the integrity of coming from Nigeria, my culture, my life all in my music. I think all these are responsible for my nominations.
How do you feel when people say that your father was critical of government and that you are not?
I think that they are just being biased. First of all, I have known that I can never be my father; yes, he is my father but I can never be him. It is impossible; I knew this from my early age. I appreciate him, I love him. He was a great musician. It is not like I am in competition with him or that I want to put him down. I appreciate my father’s life just like I knew from my early stage that I am going to have my own pain, my own joy. I can’t be him and he can’t be me. I don’t want to be his replica; I was trained to be like him. I used to dress like him, play his numbers, leading his band and but later in life my spirit refused. I didn’t want to take over Egypt 80, I wanted my own life, my own band, never wanted to live under his roof or shadow. I wanted my own life. So, there is no way I can write the kind of music he wrote because of the pains he felt while writing them. His house was burnt, his mother was killed, the beatings he got, his many incarcerations. All of these informed how sentimental and emotional he was while writing and recording the songs. Another reason I don’t like to answer this question is that if I start to blow my trumpet they will think I am bringing my father down. But let us look at it this way, before he died I was already breaking into the international market not because I am Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s son. I was breaking in because people love my music. And then when Bang! Bang! Bang! hit the international market, it entered clubs where my father’s music had not entered, it cut the attention of a generation many of whom had not heard the name Fela Anikulapo – Kuti or his music. Even when Bang! Bang! Bang! first hit the scene, they loved it before they knew I am the man behind it and before they knew that I am Fela’s son. I broke into a generation before they know who I am and who my father was. My music has achieved greatness not because I am Fela’s son or that I am taking advantage of the name. So it is unfair for them to compare me with Fela because I can never be Fela. He was unique. The same thing they are doing on twitter and all blog sites on whether I will attend the Grammy. They keep saying ‘Femi shuns Grammy; says he won’t attend’ without stating my reason for saying I won’t attend. And there is no sane person that will hear my reason and will not agree with me. I got a phone call from a woman in Australia who wanted to know if it is true that I will not attend and when I gave her my reasons she just started laughing and said ‘oh, very wise.’ These people that keep comparing me with Fela or saying that I shun Grammy do not wish me well and that is the truth. And let us face the fact, not everybody wants me to win the Grammy; many will be envious if I win because in Nigeria the Grammy is a big deal whether we like it or not.