Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 are bringing Afrobeat classics and revolutionary politics to Hamer Hall for RISING.
Seun Kuti doesn’t just believe revolution is possible. He insists on it.
Kuti, a saxophonist and vocalist, is the youngest son of the late Nigerian Afrobeat legend, Fela Kuti. He continues to perform with his dad’s former band, Egypt 80, which he joined when he was just nine years old.
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 @ RISING
- Friday 5 June
- Hamer Hall
- Tickets here
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They’ve released five albums together, all of them powered by the spirit of resistance, resilience, and revolution. The latest, 2024’s Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head), is emblematic of the symbiosis between Kuti’s music and his revolutionary activism.
“I always want to make music for resistance, music that will make people rebellious,” Kuti says, chatting to Beat ahead of his performance at Hamer Hall for this year’s RISING.
Outside of music, Kuti is a pan-African activist and the leader of his father’s former political party, the Nigerian socialist and anti-elite coalition Movement of the People. He believes music is a powerful political tool.
When he was writing songs for Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head), Kuti was conscious of making music that would inspire people to act, to resist, and to organise against oppression. One example is T.O.P., the title of which stands for “things over people”. The lyrics look at how society values money and success more than it values people.
“Nothing is done in Africa if there’s no profit incentive,” Kuti says. “Our children cannot have good public education because it is not profitable, because Africans are not worthy enough to afford it for themselves, and our resources are captured by those who don’t think that those things are necessary to invest in for African people, because our education is not more important than profits.
“So, African children do not feel worthy. Their health care, if it’s not profitable, it’s not available. That’s the mindset of the ruling classes of Africa. So, T.O.P. is talking about that.”
Despite the prevalence of capitalist and neo-colonial exploitation, Kuti is optimistic about dismantling the status quo. “Working class people can come together to reenact and give new life to those struggles that gave us the freedoms that are being eroded today,” he says.
Track four on Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head), Emi Aluta, is about this very struggle. It’s a tribute to all the great revolutionaries, and it features guest vocals from Sampa the Great.
“Emi Aluta calls on us to follow the spirit of our revolutionaries instead of the spirit of the religious gods in Africa,” Kuti says. “Sampa is someone I respect a lot. Working with her on this track was very exciting because she had incredible ideas, and we couldn’t have made this song the way it is without her.”
Kuti wrote the song Love and Revolution for his wife. “I strongly believe in the fact that our revolutions were only successful because it was powered by African women all over the world,” Kuti says. “African women were at the forefront of not only the revolutionary struggle, but the ideas and the methodology that enacted many of these revolutionary struggles.”
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There are a lot of powerful emotions in Seun Kuti’s music, but he doesn’t think anger plays a central role. Rather, he sees his music as a call to action.
“My music is not my emotion alone,” Kuti says. “I feel I’m channelling the emotion of the people, and I am looking for a way to connect those to the righteousness of our cause.
“As the Swedish author Sven Lindqvist once said, everybody knows what’s going on. Everybody knows that it’s bad. And we all know what to do. But we just lack the courage. And I feel my music is to connect us to that courage.”
Last year, a clip went viral of Kuti speaking on stage during a show in Eastern Europe. “I know you want to free Palestine, free Congo, free Sudan, free Iran,” he said, before giving the audience a challenge. “Free Europe from right-wing extremism, from fascism, from racism. Free Europe from imperialism. When you do this job – as soon as you do this job – Gaza will be free. Congo will be free. Sudan will be free.” He stands by this sentiment.
“I try to remind the people of our class similarities,” Kuti says. “To reignite class consciousness in the mindset of the people. To put it in the forefront of every struggle that we are engaged in.
“I try to let the people know that our strength can be found within each other. Together, we can be more powerful than the global oligarchs that dominate our attention with their negative narrative about who we are as human beings.”
Get your tickets to see Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 at Hamer Hall here.
