The first daughter of Nigerian iconic musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Yeni Kuti, opened up on how a reputable American record label wanted to acquire her father’s back catalogue.
Speaking in a recent interview, Yeni revealed the sacrifice Fela made for his children when one of America’s biggest labels, Motown Records, came knocking on his door with a staggering one million dollars to buy the Afrobeat piooner’s back catalogue.
A back catalogue is the music that an artist recorded and released in the past rather than their most recent recordings, and according to Yeni, Fela turned down that juicy offer so that his children could continue to feed off his music after he died, a decision that still exists today.
The 61-year old Yeni Kuti also made it known that even after Fela’s death, labels still approached the family to acquire the legend’s music catalogue, but the family continued to stand by Fela’s initial decision.
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