It’s past 6pm on this usual Thursday. I sauntered into the
hall way leading to his office apartment. It’s a few hours
to rehearsals and he is busy trying out notes on the
trumpet. This is the routine for Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, the
CEO of 12-piece Positive Force Band- arguably one of
Africa’s greatest dance bands. It’s the same routine and
discipline that has enabled him take the mantle from his
father, Fela creator of afrobeat; one of Africa’s biggest
musical exports. Founded 30 years ago on the cusp of
him leaving his father’s band, the Positive Force Band
has attained ample strength as a leading light in world
music.
Band loyalty
Since the band’s establishment bandleader Femi
Anikulapo- Kuti finds that sustaining a hugely successful
African band hasn’t been easy: “Like everything in life;
keeping and running a band is quite difficult. To keep the
group together is probably the most difficult. Retaining
loyalty of band members whenever we are touring Europe
and America is another aspect because I have
experienced band members leaving me midway into
tours. Those were very embarrassing moments for Africa.
That said, a lot of them are very dedicated and sincere
because they understand what I’m doing,” he said.
“I knew I would be successful. It was just that I didn’t
know how. But I was a young man determined to
succeed and my mother greatly supported and financed
my band till I ran her account dry. Then, I got my first
break in 1988 when the French Cultural Center took me
on a cultural exchange to France. That was the turning
point of my career,recalled. In retrospect, he is quick to
point out that the biggest decision for him was leaving
his father’s band. “I just had to take that major step into
the unknown…and win the trust of people around me. I
just knew I had to leave,” he said.
In the early years of his solo career, critics generally
lambasted what they considered the lukewarm afrobeat
of Femi Kuti. But in the ensuing decades, the recordings
he made advanced the afrobeat idea, making greater use
of electronics and high-powered amplification, and
deemphasizing solos in favor of ensemble funk. The
music was fierce and rolling. By this time, the positive
Force had reached new heights of popularity: Concerts
selling out all over the world and recordings denting pop
charts. His word: “That was a huge step for my music.
Letting my music be remixed by many great DJs
particularly Bang! Bang! Bang! Which went very far with
various genres of remix spanning house, techno, reggae
and Dance music. My collaborations with great
American musicians on my 2001 album Fight to Win was
a milestone project that took afrobeat to another level.
Then of course, making myself available as guest artiste
with many other great musicians also greatly helped push
the boundaries.”
Concert Tours:
On this typical Thursday, the crowd starts to build inside
the Africa Shrine. Onstage, though, Femi Kuti barely
breaks a sweat. The afrobeat king, garbed T-shirt with
Batik pants, gets his fans to do some of the work. They
rhyme along with him during each song, finishing his
verses with him. Four hours later he walks offstage,
working his way through the backstage. His band
members retire to the ground room to joke and probably
pass around some drinks.
Femi enters his separate suite and commences banter
with friends and family members. Femi usually repeats
this ritual through-out the year on a much larger, more
lucrative concert scale.The concert business has never
been bigger, in dissonant contrast to the recorded-music
business. While music sales have dropped, hurt by digital
piracy and a lackluster flow of hot new acts, the tour
business has since climbed, thus musicians increasingly
rely on road shows for their income:
“Albums don’t sell like before anymore so we rely more
on making sure that we’re constantly touring. I am a live
oriented musician because my strength is in live
performance. But the truth is that I hardly make money
from my international tours because so many things
come into doing a tour. I mean, whenever I’m on tour,
I’m thinking of salary for the band, money for flight
tickets, ground transportation (tour sleeper bus) which
usually costs $20/30,000 depending on the duration of
the tour.
‘’The cost to hire the tour bus excludes drivers feeding
and fuelling. I then provide 3 square meals for 12-piece
band members. I’m also paying my agents, manager and
publicists who have to effectively put out words that the
band in town. Even at that, you’re not guaranteed to fill all
the venues. So, by the time you cut all these costs from
a $200,000 tour and still be able to come back with
$5,000; you’re quite lucky. And yet, nobody cares about
your meager profit because what they think is that you’re
worth $200,000 because you did cover all your costs.
‘’And if your name could generate $200,000 that’s how
you’ll be rated in terms of market value. I’m going on tour
of the United Kingdom this week for instance and flight
tickets alone is nearly $40,000. How can I make profits? I
play free at the Shrine on Thursdays and Charge N500
during my Sunday shows. The same amount I’ve been
charging for nearly 16 years. The point is: My aim is not
to make money but I’m glad that I’m able to pay my bills
and maintain a modest lifestyle.
‘’I have one car and a bus that conveys my children to
and from school. In Nigeria, I might have one or two big
shows that can sustain me for the whole year. So, it’s
really not about showing off; it’s about keeping the head
above water which I can manage to do, he explained.
In spite of not making so much money during tours, he
constantly keeps an eye on the budget because he finds
that it’s very important in the running of bands.
Responding to how he prioritizes his running budget, he
says: “Anybody that’s with my band must understand that
they are with me for the love of playing music. When you
understand that then you can acclimatize to any
situation: sometimes you’re playing for free; sometimes
you’re playing and you make money. Any band member
that’s not ready for that cannot play with me.’’
Social Media
In terms of media promotion, Femi thinks that it’s
important for bands to promote themselves on the
internet especially with platforms like MySpace. “You
can’t do without the internet. It’s a new age. There was a
time journalists had the power to make or mar an artiste.
Now, an artiste that has 100,000 followers doesn’t really
need the press that much.
‘’They will only need specialized journalists if he/she is a
well-respected and objective music journalist to review
their work. And most of the time, journalists who’re worth
their name go out of their way to find artiste with
substance, assess and then write stories on them.
‘’There are many well respected journalists that artistes
cannot do without. And these objective journalists will
always be there without being sought. So, the game has
changed because in the past, a bad story could ruin the
career of an artiste. And it could either take nearly a
lifetime for the artiste to do damage control or it must be
that the artiste must really be loved by his/her fans to
ignore bad press because people are very gullible with
regard to what they read. Social media is indeed the
game changer,” he explained.
Similarly, he finds that it’s always important for record
labels, publishers and artiste managers to work together.
He said: “An artiste needs a good management, record
label and publisher. Most importantly, the artiste must
always have the freedom to create because when the
artiste does everything by themselves they lose focus
because artistes cannot be business people. I like
division of labor and so, the artiste must remain the
musician and must be left alone to create. But they
certainly must be part of the business because they are
the business. And they must let the business manipulate
itself.”
hall way leading to his office apartment. It’s a few hours
to rehearsals and he is busy trying out notes on the
trumpet. This is the routine for Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, the
CEO of 12-piece Positive Force Band- arguably one of
Africa’s greatest dance bands. It’s the same routine and
discipline that has enabled him take the mantle from his
father, Fela creator of afrobeat; one of Africa’s biggest
musical exports. Founded 30 years ago on the cusp of
him leaving his father’s band, the Positive Force Band
has attained ample strength as a leading light in world
music.
Band loyalty
Since the band’s establishment bandleader Femi
Anikulapo- Kuti finds that sustaining a hugely successful
African band hasn’t been easy: “Like everything in life;
keeping and running a band is quite difficult. To keep the
group together is probably the most difficult. Retaining
loyalty of band members whenever we are touring Europe
and America is another aspect because I have
experienced band members leaving me midway into
tours. Those were very embarrassing moments for Africa.
That said, a lot of them are very dedicated and sincere
because they understand what I’m doing,” he said.
“I knew I would be successful. It was just that I didn’t
know how. But I was a young man determined to
succeed and my mother greatly supported and financed
my band till I ran her account dry. Then, I got my first
break in 1988 when the French Cultural Center took me
on a cultural exchange to France. That was the turning
point of my career,recalled. In retrospect, he is quick to
point out that the biggest decision for him was leaving
his father’s band. “I just had to take that major step into
the unknown…and win the trust of people around me. I
just knew I had to leave,” he said.
In the early years of his solo career, critics generally
lambasted what they considered the lukewarm afrobeat
of Femi Kuti. But in the ensuing decades, the recordings
he made advanced the afrobeat idea, making greater use
of electronics and high-powered amplification, and
deemphasizing solos in favor of ensemble funk. The
music was fierce and rolling. By this time, the positive
Force had reached new heights of popularity: Concerts
selling out all over the world and recordings denting pop
charts. His word: “That was a huge step for my music.
Letting my music be remixed by many great DJs
particularly Bang! Bang! Bang! Which went very far with
various genres of remix spanning house, techno, reggae
and Dance music. My collaborations with great
American musicians on my 2001 album Fight to Win was
a milestone project that took afrobeat to another level.
Then of course, making myself available as guest artiste
with many other great musicians also greatly helped push
the boundaries.”
Concert Tours:
On this typical Thursday, the crowd starts to build inside
the Africa Shrine. Onstage, though, Femi Kuti barely
breaks a sweat. The afrobeat king, garbed T-shirt with
Batik pants, gets his fans to do some of the work. They
rhyme along with him during each song, finishing his
verses with him. Four hours later he walks offstage,
working his way through the backstage. His band
members retire to the ground room to joke and probably
pass around some drinks.
Femi enters his separate suite and commences banter
with friends and family members. Femi usually repeats
this ritual through-out the year on a much larger, more
lucrative concert scale.The concert business has never
been bigger, in dissonant contrast to the recorded-music
business. While music sales have dropped, hurt by digital
piracy and a lackluster flow of hot new acts, the tour
business has since climbed, thus musicians increasingly
rely on road shows for their income:
“Albums don’t sell like before anymore so we rely more
on making sure that we’re constantly touring. I am a live
oriented musician because my strength is in live
performance. But the truth is that I hardly make money
from my international tours because so many things
come into doing a tour. I mean, whenever I’m on tour,
I’m thinking of salary for the band, money for flight
tickets, ground transportation (tour sleeper bus) which
usually costs $20/30,000 depending on the duration of
the tour.
‘’The cost to hire the tour bus excludes drivers feeding
and fuelling. I then provide 3 square meals for 12-piece
band members. I’m also paying my agents, manager and
publicists who have to effectively put out words that the
band in town. Even at that, you’re not guaranteed to fill all
the venues. So, by the time you cut all these costs from
a $200,000 tour and still be able to come back with
$5,000; you’re quite lucky. And yet, nobody cares about
your meager profit because what they think is that you’re
worth $200,000 because you did cover all your costs.
‘’And if your name could generate $200,000 that’s how
you’ll be rated in terms of market value. I’m going on tour
of the United Kingdom this week for instance and flight
tickets alone is nearly $40,000. How can I make profits? I
play free at the Shrine on Thursdays and Charge N500
during my Sunday shows. The same amount I’ve been
charging for nearly 16 years. The point is: My aim is not
to make money but I’m glad that I’m able to pay my bills
and maintain a modest lifestyle.
‘’I have one car and a bus that conveys my children to
and from school. In Nigeria, I might have one or two big
shows that can sustain me for the whole year. So, it’s
really not about showing off; it’s about keeping the head
above water which I can manage to do, he explained.
In spite of not making so much money during tours, he
constantly keeps an eye on the budget because he finds
that it’s very important in the running of bands.
Responding to how he prioritizes his running budget, he
says: “Anybody that’s with my band must understand that
they are with me for the love of playing music. When you
understand that then you can acclimatize to any
situation: sometimes you’re playing for free; sometimes
you’re playing and you make money. Any band member
that’s not ready for that cannot play with me.’’
Social Media
In terms of media promotion, Femi thinks that it’s
important for bands to promote themselves on the
internet especially with platforms like MySpace. “You
can’t do without the internet. It’s a new age. There was a
time journalists had the power to make or mar an artiste.
Now, an artiste that has 100,000 followers doesn’t really
need the press that much.
‘’They will only need specialized journalists if he/she is a
well-respected and objective music journalist to review
their work. And most of the time, journalists who’re worth
their name go out of their way to find artiste with
substance, assess and then write stories on them.
‘’There are many well respected journalists that artistes
cannot do without. And these objective journalists will
always be there without being sought. So, the game has
changed because in the past, a bad story could ruin the
career of an artiste. And it could either take nearly a
lifetime for the artiste to do damage control or it must be
that the artiste must really be loved by his/her fans to
ignore bad press because people are very gullible with
regard to what they read. Social media is indeed the
game changer,” he explained.
Similarly, he finds that it’s always important for record
labels, publishers and artiste managers to work together.
He said: “An artiste needs a good management, record
label and publisher. Most importantly, the artiste must
always have the freedom to create because when the
artiste does everything by themselves they lose focus
because artistes cannot be business people. I like
division of labor and so, the artiste must remain the
musician and must be left alone to create. But they
certainly must be part of the business because they are
the business. And they must let the business manipulate
itself.”
Meet The Boss: This Business of Music,Femi Anikulapo-Kuti,CEO, Positive Force Band
Reviewed by Victor Kolawole
on
June 09, 2016
Rating:
Reviewed by Victor Kolawole
on
June 09, 2016
Rating:
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