Seun Kuti is a saxophonist and bandleader in Brooklyn, NY. He leads Egypt 80, the ensemble his father Fela Kuti founded, performing Afrobeat music centered on contemporary African political resistance.
Seun Kuti leads Egypt 80, the band his father Fela Kuti built into a machine for political sound. At 14 he took the helm after Fela's death in 1997, preserving arrangements and improvisational traditions while anchoring the ensemble in Seun's own material—songs that dig into contemporary African resistance and pan-African futures. He plays saxophone and percussion with muscular conviction. The groove is Afrobeat's interlocking rhythms, the lyrics straight-faced about struggle: police brutality in Nigeria (#EndSARS), capitalist extraction, the reclamation of dignity. He's revived his father's political party, the Movement of the People, abandoned by military coup in 1980. Seun keeps returning to the question his father posed: can a band be both a dance floor and a gathering place for resistance.
Fun Stuff covers what's worth showing up for in Williamsburg every week, including artists like Seun Kuti. Free.
Know more about Seun Kuti, or someone else we should feature?
hello@funstuffnyc.com →