Crown prince of Afrobeat, Seun Kuti, has been nominated for a Grammy Award. His March 2018 album “Black Times” was nominated for ‘Best World Music Album’
According to the awards website, the award category recognizes “albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal or instrumental World Music recordings.”
in his father’s footsteps
Seun is one of the two commercially successful musical children of the Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, the other being Femi. Femi performed with his father’s band back in the day, and became the lead singer of the Egypt 80 band in 1997 at 14, following Fela’s death. He has some of his father’s original musicians still playing in his band till date.
Seun’s debut album was released in 2008, produced by Martin Meissonnier who had also produced a couple of albums for Fela. He has had 4 other studio albums since then.
The “Black Times” album was self-sponsore because, as he explained, he wanted to own his own masters for the first time in his life. In the album, Seun pays tribute to his parents and to every revolutionary that has made a difference.
“Black Times is a true reflection of my political and social beliefs.”
— Seun Kuti
Other albums nominated alongside Seun Kuti’s “Black Times” are Soweto Gospel Choir’s “Freedom”, Yiddish Glory’s “The Lost Songs of World War II”, “Deran” by Bombino, and “Fenfo” by Fatoumata Diawara.
Sources:
WikipediaSahara Reporters
Feature image: bbc.co.uk
