Nigerian singer and producer Tekno has thrown a live grenade into one of African music’s oldest arguments after declaring that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is not the originator of Afrobeat.
Speaking during an interview on Hot 97 FM in New York, the “Pana” and “Rara” star argued that the story of the sound is bigger than one Lagos icon and that Eastern highlife legends have been written out of the conversation.
“Fela is not the originator of Afrobeat. Lagos people and the Yorubas might say he’s the one, but I am from the East, and we had legends like Oliver De Coque,” Tekno said.
“Oliver De Coque made pure highlife music. Highlife is also Afrobeat.”
The comments have sparked heated debate online, with some listeners accusing him of rewriting history and others cheering him for spotlighting musicians who rarely get global credit.
Tekno did not deny Fela’s stature. He even admitted that his own record “Rara” drew from the late icon. He insisted, however, that Fela’s worldwide fame came from travel and visibility rather than exclusive ownership of the sound.
“Fela gets all the credit because he travelled and performed with his band around the world. To some people, he is the originator of the Afrobeat thing, but to me, there are a bunch of them and a lot of legends no one speaks about,” he added.
The singer said his personal soundtrack growing up was Eastern highlife, not Kalakuta.
“I would say I was more inspired by Oliver De Coque because my dad used to play his records. There were so many artists that nobody knows about,” he explained.
The timing of the remarks has amplified the reaction. Music historians and fans have long drawn a line between Afrobeat (the politically charged, horn-heavy genre Fela named and shaped with drummer Tony Allen in the late 1960s) and Afrobeats (the modern West African pop wave that exploded globally in the 2010s). In everyday conversation the two names often get mixed, and that blur is exactly what many critics say happened in the interview.
Oliver De Coque, the late Igbo highlife guitarist Tekno named, remains a giant in Eastern Nigeria. His intricate guitar work and highlife recordings influenced generations, even if they never travelled the same international circuit as Fela’s Africa ’70 band.
Tekno’s stance also fits a wider pattern. In recent years several contemporary stars have challenged the idea that one man, one city, or one ethnic group owns the entire lineage of Nigerian popular music. The result is usually the same: pride, pushback, and a fresh round of arguments about who built the house everyone now lives in.