{"id":77199,"date":"2025-10-23T09:47:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=77199"},"modified":"2025-10-23T09:47:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:47:51","slug":"obama-hails-fela-kuti-as-musical-genius-symbol-of-activism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/23\/obama-hails-fela-kuti-as-musical-genius-symbol-of-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Hails Fela Kuti as Musical Genius, Symbol of Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onilede Titi Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Former U.S. President Barack Obama has paid tribute to Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, describing him as a \u201cmusical genius from Nigeria\u201d whose work fused funk, jazz, and soul into a timeless sound.<\/p>\n<p>Obama made the remarks in a video shared on social media while promoting a new 12-episode podcast series titled \u201cFela Kuti: Fear No Man\u201d, produced by Higher Ground, the media company he co-founded with former First Lady Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFela was a musical genius who created Afrobeat, a mix of funk, jazz, and soul. He was a unique figure who blended art with activism,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary traces Fela\u2019s journey from his childhood in Abeokuta to his transformative years in Los Angeles in 1969, exploring how his music became a tool for political resistance and Pan-African consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>Featuring over 200 interviews with Fela\u2019s family, friends, and artists including Femi Kuti, Yeni Kuti, Burna Boy, and Paul McCartney, the podcast celebrates Fela\u2019s enduring legacy as one of Africa\u2019s most revolutionary cultural icons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onilede Titi Faith &nbsp; Former U.S. President Barack Obama has paid tribute to Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, describing him as a \u201cmusical genius from Nigeria\u201d whose work fused funk, jazz, and soul into a timeless sound. Obama made the remarks in a video shared on social media while promoting a new 12-episode podcast [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":77200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77201,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77199\/revisions\/77201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}