From time to time, Nigerian pop culture finds itself circling the same argument: how to measure greatness across generations. The conversation often resurfaces when contemporary success meets historical reverence, and when fan enthusiasm collides with legacy stewardship.
Recent social media exchanges between famous Nigerian musicians Wizkid and Seun Kuti have reignited a long-standing debate over how Nigerian music culture defines greatness. The saga began with Seun Kuti publicly criticizing comparisons made by Wizkid’s fan base ( Wizkid FC), who suggested that Wizkid’s global success and influence could rival that of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
For days, Seun engaged directly with the fan base, dismissing the notion as a disrespect to his father’s revolutionary legacy. The situation escalated further when Wizkid himself entered the fray, posting on his Instagram story that he was outrightly greater than Fela, a move that only intensified the online jabs and cemented the confrontation as a direct head-to-head clash between artist and legacy.
At the centre of the embarrassing discourse is a flawed impulse to compress different kinds of greatness into a single ranking system. Wizkid and Fela Anikulapo Kuti are both monumental figures in Nigerian music history, but they are monumental in fundamentally different ways. Treating them as comparable entities does not elevate either man. Instead, it flattens the complexity of what each represents.
Wizkid is a generational icon whose work has reshaped the global perception of African pop music in the 21st century. Fela is an all-time legend whose music, politics, and lifestyle altered Nigeria’s cultural and ideological trajectory. In my opinion, these are not competing claims but different categories entirely.
Understanding why requires clarity, and not passion, fandom, or nostalgia. Just fucking context.
How is this for context? Wizkid’s rise coincided with the most consequential period of global expansion Nigerian pop music has ever experienced. From his emergence in the early 2010s, he became a defining sound of a generation navigating digital connectivity, global aspiration, and cultural confidence. Songs like Ojuelegba marked a turning point, not just artistically, but symbolically, drawing international attention to a Nigerian narrative that was no longer framed by novelty, but by presence.
His album Made in Lagos would go on to achieve unprecedented international longevity, while Essence crossed barriers that Afrobeats songs had rarely breached, entering mainstream Western radio, winning major international awards, and positioning Nigerian pop as globally competitive rather than regionally celebrated.
These achievements are significant and not incidental. Wizkid helped transform Afrobeats from a regional movement into a global industry force. He opened doors, shifted perceptions, and normalized African artists operating at the center of global pop culture rather than its margins. In this sense, Wizkid is unquestionably a generational artist, one whose work will be studied as a defining chapter in the globalization of African music.
Fela’s impact, however, belongs to a different order of influence. Abami Eda deeply reflected Nigerian society. He confronted the leaders in power, spoke truth even at the expense of danger to himself and his kindred.
This confrontational power is why Fela’s influence extends far beyond Nigeria. Global musicians and cultural thinkers consistently frame him not as a transformative figure. Famous singer and former frontman of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, who recorded in Lagos in the 1970s, initially faced Fela’s suspicion, having been publicly accused of “stealing African music.” Yet after attending Fela’s performances at the Afrika Shrine, McCartney later admitted that the experience was profoundly moving; it reduced him to tears and left a lasting impression on how he understood rhythm, groove, and the expressive capacity of music. McCartney’s reflections carry weight because they come from one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, whose own work defined global pop culture.
Similarly, legendary producer Brian Eno described encountering Fela’s music as revelatory. He spoke of Afrobeat as a genre that upended his understanding of rhythm and melody, influencing the sonic experimentation of artists such as Talking Heads. Questlove of The Roots has highlighted Fela’s catalog as music that is enduring and intoxicating, describing it as transformative precisely because it requires active engagement, refusing the instant gratification of pop hits. Guitarist Carlos Santana has also referenced Fela’s music as spiritually and politically potent, emphasizing how it combines musical virtuosity with moral clarity.
These global attestations are recognition from some of the most influential voices in modern music that Fela’s artistry is both historically significant and universally compelling. Such acknowledgment reinforces what scholars and musicians have long argued: Fela’s legacy is not confined to Nigeria or to a specific time, but resonates across cultural, geographic, and temporal boundaries.
To this writer, Wizkid’s career operates within power structures. He has mastered them, expanded them, and reshaped them in ways that benefit African artists worldwide. His influence demonstrates how culture can thrive within global industry systems, leveraging visibility, branding, and strategic collaboration to assert presence.
Fela’s career, by contrast, was defined by opposition. He used music not as an entry point into systems, but as a tool to challenge and destabilize them. This resistance came at immense personal cost: repeated arrests, censorship, violent attacks on his communal space, and profound personal loss.- Including the demise of his mother.
The distinction is also visible in how memory operates. Wizkid’s legacy is sustained through living memory, streaming platforms, touring history, award records, and active fan communities. His story is still unfolding, meticulously documented, and continuously validated by contemporary culture.
Fela’s legacy has entered institutional memory. His work is archived in universities, celebrated in museums and festivals, and referenced in political and cultural discourse worldwide. His relevance does not depend on current trends or nostalgia. It resurfaces whenever discussions about power, resistance, or cultural identity demand it.
Wizkid’s story will be told for generations as part of the narrative of Afrobeats’ global rise. Fela’s story will continue to be told as long as humanity debates power, autonomy, and the capacity of music to act as both weapon and witness. One is bound to generational memory. The other has become a historical constant.
Bottom freaking line, Wizkid is a modern icon, and Fela is an all-time legend. One defines an era. The other defines a standard.
The mistake is not in celebrating either man. It is in forcing them into the same frame. This is the footnote of the imprecise language Nigerian music culture suffers from. When we learn to distinguish icons from legends, moments from movements, and visibility from transformation, we allow both to be fully understood, on their own terms.
