Fela is not the originator of afrobeat – Tekno claims

Nigerian singer Augustine Miles Kelechi Okechukwu, popularly known as Tekno has made claims about the origin of afrobeats, arguing that Fela Kuti is not the originator of the music genre.

While speaking during an interview on HOT 97, Tekno explained that he believes the story goes beyond just one person. He acknowledged Fela’s impact while pointing to other Nigerian music legends who influenced the sound

“I don’t know, to be honest. There are legends like Oliver De Coque that made pure highlife music, and highlife is also Afrobeat. So I would say for the people in Lagos and Yorubas, a record of mine that is ‘Rara’ is heavily inspired by Fela because I heard his tune and he is a legend. He stamped the Afrobeat thing on the world map. But there are other people that we listen to from the East, because I am from the East, and we had legends that sang some type of music that if you heard today, you wouldn’t even believe that this music was made in those times. I feel like they don’t know these guys or maybe they didn’t come across them,” he said.

Tekno also claimed that Fela gets the credit of creating afrobeats because he was popular and well travelled unlike other artists

“I would say I was more inspired by Oliver De Coque because my dad used to play his records. There were so many artists that nobody knows about, and Fela gets the credit because he kind of travelled and had the band and went around the world. For some people, he is the originator of the Afrobeat thing, but to me, there is still a bunch of them and a lot of legends no one speaks about,” he added.