In recent weeks, a public spat between Seun Kuti and Wizkid has reignited an old, tired argument in Nigerian and African cultural discourse: who deserves the title of “legend”? The feud, amplified by social media’s appetite for conflict, has been framed as a generational clash between heritage and relevance, legacy and popularity, and ideology and commercial success. But this framing misses the point entirely. Legendary status is not a competition, and culture is not a zero-sum game.
Seun Kuti is not just another artist in Nigeria’s crowded music space. He is the custodian of Afrobeat in its most political, confrontational, and unapologetic form. As the son of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Seun did not merely inherit a famous name; he inherited a responsibility to history, to resistance, and to a musical tradition rooted in anti-imperialism and social justice.
For over two decades, Seun has carried this torch with consistency, often at personal and commercial cost. His relevance is not measured by chart positions but by continuity: Afrobeat as a living political language.
Wizkid, on the other hand, represents a different but equally crucial Nigerian story. He is the sound of contemporary Africa on a global stage, Afrobeats as a cultural export, reshaping how the world hears Black African music. Wizkid’s influence is undeniable. From stadium tours to international collaborations, he has expanded the economic and cultural footprint of Nigerian music in ways that were unimaginable a generation ago. His success is not an erasure of the past; it is a product of foundations laid by artists like Fela, Sunny Ade, and others.
The problem arises when we flatten “legendary” into a single metric, such as streams, awards, visibility, or ideological purity. Social media thrives on ranking: who is bigger, who matters more, who should be humbled. But culture does not work that way. Fela himself was not competing with pop stars of his time; he was building something parallel, something enduring. To suggest that Wizkid’s success diminishes Seun Kuti’s relevance or that Seun’s ideological depth invalidates Wizkid’s impact is to misunderstand how cultural ecosystems function.
Living legends and past legends can and must coexist side by side. Africa does not progress by replacing its elders with its youth, nor by freezing its icons in time. Progress happens when multiple truths coexist: political art and commercial art, protest music and pleasure music, heritage and innovation. Wizkid does not owe Seun Kuti ideological conformity, and Seun Kuti does not owe Wizkid pop validation.
What this feud really exposes is our collective insecurity about value. In a society shaped by scarcity, economics, politics, and psychology, we are conditioned to believe that recognition must be fought over. But legends are not crowned by consensus, nor do trends dethrone them. A legend is someone whose work alters the direction of culture, whether through sound, message, or reach. By that definition, Nigeria is fortunate not to be divided, to have both Seun Kuti and Wizkid.
The tragedy would be turning this moment into another example of how Africa eats its own, mistaking debate for destruction. The opportunity is recognising that our cultural lineage is wide enough to hold drums of resistance and melodies of global joy at the same time.
Legendary is not a competition; it is a continuum, and Africa is more prosperous when it remembers that.
Author: Joy Gofwen
Lagos, Bureau Chief,
Nigeria
