Popular Afrobeats artiste, Seun Kuti has claimed that the media deliberately misrepresents his personality just the same way his late father, Fela Kuti’s image was misconstrued.
The youngest son of Fela made this assertion during a recent chat with media personality, Chude Jideonwo, on his podcast With Chude.
Seun who recently got arrested for assaulting a police officer, stated that contrary to the widespread belief that he started smoking at a tender age, he did not do so until he was 21 years old.
The controversial singer also noted that the media projected his father’s image in a bad light when he was alive. He said they made the general public come to the wrong conclusion that Fela wore underpants all the time while performing on stage.
According to the leader of the Egypt 80 musical band, “I think it’s deliberate on the part of the media to project me out. It’s the same way they projected my dad, and people thought he wore pants all the time to perform. They kept showing him at one rehearsal at home, where he wore pants. But that was part of a documentary. People thought that was the truth, and they felt Fela was crazzy.
“For example, I didn’t start smoking until I was 21 years old. I was in Liverpool, and that was when I knew that peer pressure is the biggest influence in the life of a growing human being.”
While revealing how he finally started smoking at the age of 21, during his 20 years of living in the Kalakuta Republic, he advised parents to pay attention to their children and their friends, noting that it would be the best gift a parent can give to their children.
Seun said; “Watch your child’s friends, that’s the best gift you can give them. For the 20 years that I lived in Kalakuta Republic, everyone was smoking around me, and I never smoked. After just one year of living with my flatmate, Alex, who was smoking all the time and was my agemate, he initiated me.
“At that time, they had started writing articles about how I was taking all kinds of drugs. I think it’s a way they project people in certain ways that society disregards. It’s a kind of alienation tactic”.
Recounting his experience in detention, over the assault of a police officer which was captured on video, the artiste said; “Well, my case is in court, so I will not really delve deep into that issue, but I will say this, I don’t believe that protecting my family is a crime. An 8-second video doesn’t explain an incident that happened for about 15 minutes.”