Yapping at the Jazz Cafe

Photo from: www.netzpolitik.de


Seun Kuti, son of the great Fela Anikulapo Kuti, is a funny chap. At Monday night's gig at the Jazz Cafe, he spoke about something I wrote about in an earlier post : these blessed MP's expenses.

“Your MPs, man, what’s going on? You people are insulting this man because he stole £400, £1000, £200, £6000. What? What? You got it good man, you got it good. I’m sure the Nigerians are just watching the news laughing, ha ha ha, look at that guy, he stole the amount of money I use to fill the fuel in my car, ha ha ha. Oh, look at that guy, he is arrested because of money I sent my son to travel with for holidays, ha ha ha. You know, if you guys attack your MPs like this, they will just become sneakier, and they will steal more. So just let them take their £400, £600, before it comes to £6 million, £20 million. Just allow them to take their £200, the £100. Just forget about this, they uncool man."

Musical interlude of brass cacophony and the nagging, frenetic afrobeat which Seun's father created. So many saxophones on stage that it was hard to know who was playing what. The whole room was sweating, and the 13 band members on stage, playing their long, repetitive, trance-like beats, basses and melodies, exuded concentration as they drove the song on.

Seun may not have created anything new with his kind of Afrobeat, but he knows how to yap, as they say in Nigeria, do someone down, just as well as his father did:

"Before I continue, I have to tell you the secret behind the credit crunch. You'll be hearing it's the bank, the housing, it's all lies. Listen to the truth; they are all lies, all those stories you hear on CNN. The truth is this: the world's decided to start arresting African rulers who carry their money abroad. So for protest, they all decided to take their money back to Africa and hide it in their house. So now, all the dollars and pounds and euros, they're in their house. They are refusing to spend it or take it abroad because they now arrest them. That is the secret of the credit crunch. Just wait, they will hold a new meeting with IMF in two months' time, they will sort it out, they will bring the money back and everything will be fine. The money is in houses in Nigeria, precisely in Nigeria, point, right there. So just relax, it's coming back, I know the meeting is going on right now."

If you want to hear a recording of the track, you can download a zip file here