Nigerian singer Augustine Miles Kelechi, popularly known as Tekno, has challenged the widely accepted view that the late music icon Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was the sole originator of Afrobeats.
Naija News reports that Tekno spoke in a interview with Hot 97 FM in New York.
He said several older musicians played important roles in shaping the sound that later became associated with Afrobeats.
According to the singer, musicians from different parts of Nigeria contributed to the growth of the genre, but many of them have not received the level of recognition given to Fela.
Tekno mentioned the late highlife musician Oliver De Coque and other musicians from eastern Nigeria.
He said: “Fela is not the originator of Afrobeats. Lagos people and the Yorubas might say he is the one, but I am from the East, and we had legends like Oliver De Coque. Oliver De Coque made pure highlife music. Highlife is also Afrobeats.
“My song ‘Rara’ is heavily inspired by Fela because I heard his music while growing up. He is a legend. He was the one who took Afrobeat international. But there are other people that we listen to. In the East, we had some legends who sang some type of music that, if you heard today, you wouldn’t believe was made in those times.
“I feel like these legends deserved more recognition. I would say I was more inspired by Oliver De Coque and his peers from the East. My dad used to play his music a lot.
“Fela gets all the credit because he travelled and performed with his band around the world. To some people, he is the originator of Afrobeats, but to me, there are a bunch of them, legends that no one speaks about”.
