No Musician Is Greater Than Fela Kuti

         NO MUSICIAN IS GREATER THAN FELA KUTI

The latest iteration of this conversation is driven by a long rant from Seun Kuti against a section of Wizkid’s fans (Wizkid FC) who opined that the Afrobeats star has matched and surpassed the greatness of Fela Kuti, an opinion his son considers a cardinal sin.

After several days of counterattacks against the tireless FC, the defence of Seun Kuti invariably stepped on Wizkid’s toes. The Afrobeats star replied with a shocking statement where he backed the thoughts of his fans by declaring himself greater than Fela.

The statement from Wizkid, though intended as a defence against the attack from Seun Kuti, has brought disrespect to the name of Fela Kuti, and this is simply unacceptable. 

As someone who has immersed myself to a decent extent in the work and impact of Fela Kuti, I will say it as it is. Wizkid goofed with that statement. Deleting the post within minutes suggests he appreciates the gravity of his errors. Even if he does not, I am here to simply tell him that no one is greater than Fela Kuti, not even him, with his generational impact.

Nigerian megastar Burna Boy is one of the most gifted and accomplished artists Nigerian music has ever seen. For all his genius, historic success, and polarising thoughts, there is one musician whom he considers supreme and head and shoulders above him. That is the Afrobeat pioneer and Nigerian musical deity, Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti. In an October 2025 appearance on the channel of Twitch streamer PlayboyMax.

Musically, Fela Kuti is a genius whose gifts rival those of some of the most iconic musicians in history. We are talking about a man with the sheer talent and ability to define a genre and codify it as mainstream music that shaped Nigeria and gave Africa and the black race a voice on the global stage. 

Fela Kuti understood music from an academic standpoint, thanks to his studies at the prestigious Trinity College of Music in London. He also mastered the spirituality and power of sound. He took from Jazz and Funk and proceeded to Africanise them by creating percussion, structure, and composition that boldly carry African elements. He created a genre and called it Afrobeat. 

He was a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter who led every aspect of music creation in a manner largely unparalleled in Nigerian music history. Across his four-decade career, Fela Kuti recorded over fifty albums, selling tens of millions of copies. This brought him worldwide fame and respect, with several iconic artists like The Beatles, Paul McCartney, and Ginger Baker, who is considered Rock’s Music first superstar drummer, both coming to Lagos to witness his genius. Even Barack Obama, America’s first black president, called him a genius.

Yet he was not only a peerless composer, but it was what he did with the music and how his very existence was dedicated to humanity at a level so courageous, consistent, tireless, and surreal that it carries elements that’s the making of folklores and deification.