<\/a><\/div>\nOver time, he realized he could not be anyone else, not even jazz legends like Charlie Parker or John Coltrane, and certainly not Fela.<\/p>\n
He understood that he had to be himself and create his own path in music.<\/p>\n
He recalled living with his father and even imitating his style, but eventually decided to form his own band.<\/p>\n
This move that was initially met with criticism from Fela\u2019s fans and the media.<\/p>\n
Femi credited his grandmother\u2019s guidance for helping him stay focused when he was close to losing direction.<\/p>\n
Her strict words encouraged him to reconnect with his music and pursue his own success.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Femi said that the struggles he faced were necessary to establish his career and artistic voice.<\/p>\n
He explained that being under his father\u2019s shadow made it difficult to see his own dream, and only by experiencing his own challenges could he achieve his vision as Femi Kuti.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIf God wanted me to be Fela, I would have been Fela. I had to be Femi Kuti.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cHis fan base descended on me. They hated me. The press hated me. There was no internet then, so I couldn\u2019t even defend myself.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI had to feel my pain. I had to strive for my own success. Being under my father\u2019s roof, I couldn\u2019t even see that dream.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
\u00a9 2025 Abia Radio News, a division of Tee Global Innnovations [abiaradios@gmail.com]. [email\u00a0protected]<\/strong><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Afrobeats artiste Femi Kuti has shared the challenges he faced in building his own identity in music. Abia Radio News reports that the singer, while speaking on the Afropolitan Podcast, revealed that from an early age, people constantly compared him to his father, legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and expected him to follow in Fela\u2019s footsteps. Femi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":235378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1900],"class_list":["post-235377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-femi-kuti"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2140320784femikutiB1-1000x600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}