FUNKE OSAE-BROWN

Famous Afrobeat musician and late Fela Kuti’s son, Femi Kuti has joined a new music company that will manage his career for the first in Nigeria.

Kuti told a gathering of media men on Wednesday that he has agreed that Nigerian-owned Chocolate City should manage him locally. “When Chocolate City said they wanted to manage me, people called me to say I am too big for them. I found out that the management of Chocolate City were young and very vibrant,” said Kuti.

Before he agreed for Chocolate City to sign him on, Kuti said he had had bad experiences with people who had offered to manage him locally. Hence he ended up becoming his own manager.

I have never had a management contract because I have had a lot of bad experiences. Ever since I signed the contract with Chocolate City, I have never been disappointed. I strongly believe in Africa fighting for a better Africa. Normally, I have management companies in France and America who handle me but for the first time, I am having a Nigerian company showing interest in my career. Chocolate City is one of the few serious music companies in Nigeria.”  

 While speaking on the new agreement with Kuti, Audu Maikori, CEO, Chocolate City, said his entertainment company has included Kuti on its list of artistes because they want to bring the Afrobeat maestro back home.

“We believe in promoting Nigerian music. We have been doing that for ten years. Femi Kuti has been celebrated internationally than locally. So we want to bring him back home. Our target is that we have done so much to promoting Nigerian music internationally, but we have to do more,” Maikori explained.

Furthermore, Hakeem Bello-Osagie, chairman, Chocolate City, said when he was the chairman of UBA he wanted to give back to young Nigerians as Fela had encouraged him. “I wanted to encourage young Nigerian artistes to become the pop star that people like us could not be, and that was why if you recall as chairman of UBA, I invited you (Femi Kuti) to come and perform for the UBA management. So, having you now come around as second generation of the Kutis and the Bello-Osagies, and working with Chocolate City, it makes me very elated. It is a bigger world; it’s a more global world right now and I believe that the ambitions should be global. Our ambition as Nigerians is to make Nigerian music global. There is no reason why a Nigerian will not win the Grammys. As the chairman of Chocolate City, I am more of an uncle who can open a door a little quicker, give international connection. I am satisfied that Chocolate City has been a success before I became the chairman,” he said.

Recently, Kuti has done a lot of shows with younger artistes like Wizkid on the latter’s ‘Jaiye Jaiye’ single, D’banj, Omawumi, Victoria Kimani, Buffalo Soulja, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Fally Ipupa and several other young African artistes on the One/DO Agric Project, a project staged in support of the slogan of African Union for 2014, a period declared as year of Agriculture and food security.