Seun Kuti, son of late Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, has stirred debate after claiming that his father was the first person to rap.
Speaking during a recent episode of the Hits Don’t Lie podcast, the Grammy-nominated musician said Fela experimented with rap-style delivery long before the genre became globally recognised.
“Fela was the first person to rap. He did a bit of rapping on the album Authority Stealing. When he did it, we didn’t know it was going to be called ‘Rap’,” Seun said.
According to him, the spoken-word rhythm and cadence Fela used on the 1980 album qualifies as an early form of rap, even though the term had not yet gained widespread usage at the time.
However, Seun’s assertion has drawn contrasting views from music historians and hip-hop enthusiasts. DJ Kool Herc, widely regarded as one of the founding figures of hip-hop, began pioneering the breakbeat style in 1973 — seven years before the release of Authority Stealing. Alongside Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc is credited with creating and shaping rap music in the United States.
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti remains globally celebrated for creating Afrobeat, a genre that blends funk, jazz, salsa, calypso and West African rhythms, as well as for his fearless political activism against military rule in Nigeria.
While Seun Kuti’s remarks highlight Fela’s experimental and innovative approach to music, many observers argue that rap’s formal roots lie within the hip-hop movement of 1970s New York.
The comments have since ignited lively conversations online, with fans divided over whether Fela’s spoken-word performances can be classified as rap or should be seen as a separate, parallel musical expression.
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