Whats more, much ofAsakes mythmaking happened in just 2022, with the absolute pandemonium of his debutMr.
Money With The Vibe.
With Asakes ubiquity came reverence for a sixty year old genre attributed to the Yoruba ethnic group, fuji.
Adekunle Gold (center) with the filmmakers behind ‘The Odyssey’ (L-R): director Abba T. Makama, executive producer Bobo Omotayo, and co-producers Papa Omotayo and Tosin AshafaLakin Ogunbanwo*
His latest album, 2024sLungu Boy, closes with an explosive instrumental aptly titled Fuji Vibe.
Today, arguably its the only existing indigenous Nigerian music that is still relevant,Bobo Omotayosays of fuji.
We can see [fujis] influence in what we now callAfrobeats.
Previously, he curated exhibits on fuji in London and Lagos.
I grew up on Yoruba music, he says.
I listened to a lot of highlife, fuji.
I listened to King Sunny Ade a lot, Ebenezer Obey, all these people.
I had no choice, I just had to listen, because my dad played them every time.
Weve been filming for the last year, Omotayo says.
Among their interview subjects are Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey himself, Seun Kuti, and many more OGs.
In particular, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey is a legendary Juju artist, one of the most prolific.
I think he probably has 100 albums to his name.
It was really humbling to hear about his childhood.
Tell me more about that choice.
Bobo Omotayo: Okay, simple.
I was raised by a politician, my mother.
If you live in a politicians household, youre surrounded by a lot of people.
Music was used as a tool by religious missionaries to control people of Nigeria.
It doesnt have to be Yoruba in particular.
The film seems set to argue that these traditional Yoruba genres are foundational to Afrobeats.
Omotayo: Afrobeats has many, many influences, right?
Theres a whole conversation around Felas music, which is Afrobeat, as the bedrock for something called Afrobeats.
I can only do what I can.
I think taking one is an honest approach to interrogate in this conversation.
So theres influence from palm-wine music from Ghana, theres influence from northern Nigeria in sakara.
Its always been eclectic in its evolution from the very foundation.
Its roots come from traditional religion as well.
Even though the documentary is focused on an ethnic group, that ethnicity borrowed from all over the place.
Who are the legends that youve talked to, and what those conversations have been like?
Omotayo: It was wonderful to speak to General Ayinla Kollington.
This is one of the icons of fuji.
This man was one of the people that I remember creating really iconic music videos in the 80s.
People will call him the father of Afrobeats.
He invented the genre with Fela, and we were very fortunate to get him.
Hes in his 80s.
Hes a bit frail, but hes still there and we were able to chat with him.
He just took us down a couple of rabbit holes and also spoke about the music business.
This was someone who fought for artists to get paid royalties.
It was [like] you just come, record a record, you perform, you get paid.
Thats it, like a 9:00 to 5:00, you clock in.
He was also a fun person to speak with.
What are some things that they were excited to celebrate or rehash with you?
Makama: Personal stories, because a lot has happened.
I dont know whether I am privy to share some of these stories.
And this was also the era of vinyl.
So you were literally counting how many records were sold.
I enjoyed when Ayinla Kollington was telling me how he was in the army.
People are looking for those special nuggets that you dont hear from anywhere.
Thats what Im trying to share with this film.
Abba, you really seem to be interested in more avant-garde, creative takes on film.
Tell me how youre thinking about formatting this documentary?
Makama: My format is, there is no format.
Were creating it as we go, but there is a method to the madness of my creativity.
Ill have an idea, Ill have a structure, but my idea is there are no rules.
you’re free to still play around with stuff.
I might play around with that aesthetic and throw it inside the edit, I dont know yet.
And I told him, Would you be willing to lend your voice as a narrator for this picture?
I think that will give it another personal touch and edge to it.
Im playing around with stuff; with animation, stock footage, all kinds of stuff.
I also like this documentary filmmaker for BBC, Adam Curtis, who uses visuals and voiceover.
Sorry, Im geeking out right now.
No, no, this is great.
Makama: I also like,[This is] Spinal Tap, a mockumentary.
I like mockumentaries, like Borat, for instance, where you are not quite taking it seriously.
Has this work impacted your perspective on modern music at all?
It was very much songs of salvation, it was very much songs of freedom.
It was very much [that] artists become social commentators about what was going on.
Makama: What Ive learned is history just keeps repeating itself.
Theres nothing new under the sun.
And its like,Wizkidnow was Sunny Ade then.
Its like the archetypal themes that are being said.
Theres rivalry between two powerful artists in every era.
The battle in hip-hop, its also prevalent in fuji music as well.
I just like finding these parallels.
Can you say more about seeing Wizkid as or in parallel to Sunny Ade?
I think thats a really cool concrete example you could expand upon if youre comfortable with.
Theres a video that Bobo shared where Sunny Ade is in a gold Rolls-Royce driving through Lagos.
That could be any of these artists today.
And hes being interviewed by a journalist.
Again, these archetypes, they keep coming up.
Theyve always been there.
Its just different eras, different times.
Were seeing thisdebate in hip-hopand Black American pop music as well.
People willarguethat Afrobeats stars today arent political enough.
What do you make of those conversations?
But at some point, the musicians were the most powerful voices.
Technology was non-existent, as we know.
There was no television.
The only medium of communication people had in their homes in the 50s and 60s was really a radio.
The musicians had real sway.
They can influence how people voted, they can influence how people felt about a particular cause.
You found that very reoccurring over the next couple of decades.
There was also a lot of religious consciousness happening around that time.
I dont know why that is.
I dont know if its just that were maybe just a little bit happier now.
A lot of what was fueling the struggle was a cry for democracy.
I suspect that these things will 360.
Gold: I think for different times music has served as anything.
Say you go back all the way back, there are people that made music just for fun.
Its entertainment as much as it can be a social tool.
It is an expression.
I write on social consciousness.
Look at my catalog, theres not one album that Im not saying something.
And there are a lot of people like me that make songs like this.
And honestly, Im not mad at it, because at the end, what do you do?
Nigeria has experienced significant economic and political instability in recent years, though.
Makama: Ill reiterate that music is subjective and it has different purposes.
Therell always be artists who are more conscious versus those who are doing it strictly for mass consumption.
That will always be the case.
Then you also have to talk about the influence of technology.
You literally have AI now that can make music for you.
What does that word mean?
I know theres going to be a [sort of] renaissance, for sure.
Younger kids are going to be playing more instruments.
I think that revival is coming just because its going to be so basic to use tech to create.
I remember 20 years ago when vinyl started becoming a thing again.
Now almost everybody I know has a vinyl record player.
Even some of the more contemporary Afrobeat artists drop limited prints of their records on vinyl as well.
