‘Fela Was The First Person To Rap’ — Seun Kuti

By Micheal Chukwuebuka

SEUN Kuti has sparked a heated debate by stating that his father, the legendary Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti, was actually the first person to rap.

The 43-year-old made this claim during an episode of the Hits Don’t Lie podcast, citing Fela’s 1980 album “Authority Stealing” as an example of his pioneering work in the genre.

“Fela was the first person to rap,” Seun said. “He did a bit of rapping on the album Authority Stealing. When he did it, we didn’t know it was going to be called ‘rap.’”

However, Seun’s claim clashes with widely documented accounts of rap’s origins.

Most historians trace rap also known as hip-hop to early 1970s block parties in New York City, where DJs began isolating and extending percussion breaks from funk, soul, and disco tracks.