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SEUN KUTI UNVEILS NEW ALBUM “BLACK TIMES”
Afrobeat artiste
Seun Kuti is a maverick in the African music industry as he defies any
pigeonhole and continues to make music that cuts across various age
demographics and palates. Yesterday, the singer hosted friends, fans and
members of the media to the listening of his new album “Black Times” at
the Fela Museum in Lagos. Welcoming guests to the event, Seun
said " Black Times is a true reflection of my political and social
beliefs; it is also dear to my heart because for the first time ever
I wanted to own my masters, so I personally invested my funds in it.
That gave me the opportunity to say the things I wanted to say”.
The
album which is the 35-year-old singer, bandleader and
musician’s 5th body of work was released under Strut Records and
features a selected line-up of stars including the iconic guitarist
Carlos Santana, Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) and vocalist Nai
Palm of future-soul quartet “Hiatus Kaiyote”.
“More
than ever I am convinced of the mission and purpose of our
music,” saysKuti, “Here I’m giving honour to my parents and to every
revolutionary who has made a difference, many of them from before I was
born.”
The
ideas for Black Times were born as Seun Kuti and his band; Egypt 80
travelled the world, but the writing which began in 2016 happened at
home in Lagos. “I wrote this album from a place of calm and love, I was
thinking, ‘What if Africa had a philosopher king who was also a
musician, who loved Alkebulan” - the ancient Kemetic name for the
Motherland - “with all his heart? What sort of album would he make? What
would he tell his people today?’”
“Too
many African rulers do not have the country’s best interests at
heart” Seuncontinues. Too many people in Africa and the West have sunk
or are sinking into complacency: “Black Times is an album for anybody
who believes in change and understands the duty we have to rise up and
come together. The system says we’re different. But the struggle makes
us one.”
Black
Times is already getting rave reviews from the global music community,
and one of its leading tracks “Struggle Sounds” was recently featured on
DC Entertainment and Warner Bos Television’s “Black Lightning”
distributed by The CW Network and Netflix.
About Seun Kuti
The
youngest son of the Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Fela Kuti,
Seun Kuti is a global music figure who is famous for leading his
father’s Egypt 80 band and is as incensed by injustice and inspired by
greatness as his father ever was.
The energetic act,
whose shows include some of Fela originals, is as adrenalized as
the Egypt 80 band led by Fela ever were. The band’s long-plays, funky
horns, kicking beats, stirring chants and call-and-response hooks are
lent contemporary resonance by new sonic influences and the charismatic
presence of its famous band-leader. Seun Kuti who first
appeared onstage with his father aged eight (at the Harlem Apollo)
has over the years wowed festivals including Glastonbury and Roskilde
and venues such as Brighton’s Dome, sending critics into raptures.
Longtime
Afrobeat addict Brian Eno - who co-produced Seun’s 2010 breakthrough
album From Africa With Fury: Rise - summed Seun’s art up when he
declared that Seun Kuti and his band are “making some of the wildest,
livest music on the planet.”
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