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| Wyclef And Late Fela |
On November 1, 2017 Haitian rapper, musician and actor Wyclef Jean released a song titled 'Fela Kuti' in honour of the late Afrobeat legend.
The song is off his 8th studio album ' Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee' however, its a mediocre depiction of a so called 'tribute' to the late African music legend.
Wyclef in a recent interview about the Fela Kuti track, said he wanted young people to know about the legend, unfortunately he was unable to portray that in the 4-minute song.
"I decided to name it Fela Kuti because for me, I feel like we be thinking of [Bob] Marley, we give a lot of people from our past props, so when the kids hear Fela Kuti, I really want them to Google it.
For me, the same way kids can have songs called ‘Wyclef Jean’ who are influenced by me, I want kids to know who Fela is and what he means, Wyclef said.
Apart from the beat, nothing else comes close to the likeness of Fela. Wyclef only mentioned Fela's name once in the song with a line that says, 'dance like Fela and no one in the video could even replicate the famous 'Abami Eda's' dance step.
A Nigerian twitter user @theySayYo has also gone off on Wyclef for the lacklustre song with a series of tweets;
Three days after I watch @wyclef 's
#FelaKuti video on YouTube, I still wonder why Nigerians are not talking about it.
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
It feels so good to have @wyclef back with his tribute song to our iconic afrobeat master
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
But, I feel so sad with @wyclef 's disrespectful music video of #FelaKuti . Wyclef Jean failed at everything in the video
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
Hence, I won't consider @wyclef 's
#FelaKuti music video a tribute to the afrobeat pioneer! And I won't allow you rubbish #FelaKuti brand
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
The lyrics of @wyclef have nothing to do with #FelaKuti , except from the "Dance like Fela Kuti”
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
"Dance like Fela Kuti” lyrics of
@wyclef 's #FelaKuti track also brought shame to the iconic dance moves of
#FelaKuti !
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
In @wyclef 's interview about #FelaKuti track, he said you wanted d young people to know about d legend, but, u were unable to portray that!
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
Note, I appreciate @wyclef 's drive and it was so thoughtful of him to remember
#FelaKuti , but he deserves better from you
— Yo! (@TheySayYo) November 7, 2017
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Entertainment