Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti has asserted that his late father, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the iconic pioneer of Afrobeat, essentially invented rap music as well.
During an appearance on the Hits Don’t Lie podcast, Seun boldly declared that Fela was the very first person to rap.
He pointed specifically to the track “Authority Stealing,” where Fela delivered rhythmic, spoken-word-style verses with a political edge long before the genre even had a name.
Kuti emphasised that at the time of the recording, around the mid-1970s, no one realised this delivery style would later become known as rap.
“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,” he said.
