BEHIND THE STITCH: ALANI
June 21, 2024
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Afrobeat singer Seun Kuti, with his band, Egypt 80, returns with a new album, ‘Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head),’ after six years.
Seun Kuti says this album is a story for the working class and the poor people of the world. It’s an album about class consciousness
According to him, the album stands against the spirit of domination that manifests itself in politics and imperialism. “Those who would commit these things are the crowned heads of the world. But due to the fact that they control the global narrative, they seek power, and they also seek sympathy, which is contradictory,” he shared with Okay Africa.
“Many people know the saying, ‘heavy lies the head that wears the crown,’ [used] to buy sympathy from poor and working-class people that they [the wealthy and politically powerful] also live hard lives. So I reply with the idea that Heavier Yet (Lays the Crownless Head) because we do not owe them any sympathy. What we owe them is action. And that action can manifest itself in different forms: from a simple protest to outright revolution,” he added.
He continued, “The first song “T.O.P” explores the subject of running a rat race, how we’re all focused on our dealings while not keeping an eye out for what’s happening in our communities. This line was particularly interesting, “this world is full of romance and this world ain’t got no love.”
Because, you know, romance is what they’ve replaced love with. Romance is nothing but the capitalist’s interpretation of love. Because the richest man is the most romantic man, automatically; you cannot out-romance Bill Gates or Elon Musk, sorry to say [laughs].
Anyways, for me, humanity and nature are under attack, not just in Africa but globally. The spirit of elitism that is born out of capitalism and imperialism and spread all over the world has us in a bind. And African people are the only ones for whom our elites have us in a bind for other peoples’ benefit. That’s why it’s doubly important for African people to understand themselves from a class perspective. That’s why I needed to make that point.
When asked when he started making the album, Kuti said, “The earliest song actually is “Emi Aluta,” which I wrote just after the Black Times tour in 2018. I started the next album then, but then there was COVID and a pause in the world for three years. And then I changed record companies and management, and a lot of things were up in the air for me for about a year, trying to put the organization back together, to get the band moving again. It took about a good 18 months administratively to know the path I was going to take, and then I started to complete the album.
“We recorded in 2022 and 2023, and the album has been ready for almost a year now. But in-between this I’ve done a lot of side projects: I’ve done a song with Common and Black Thought; I did a full EP with Black Thought as well. I also featured on Janelle Monae’s project extensively. I’ve always been doing music but not on my projects. But now that I’m back releasing, I think I’m going to inundate the market with projects. You heard this here first.”
