Swedish-Nigerian movie director and dancehall artiste Dare Fasasi, known professionally as Baba Dee draws out the attention of Nigerian Lawyer and Filmmaker Ayo Shonaiya over his Afrobeat Documentary titled “Afrobeat: The Backstory”.
Baba Dee who is seen to be the older brother of late Nigerian music legend, Sound Sultan vented to Instagram to post a 3minutes video where he expressed his thoughts towards the Documentary.
According to Baba Dee, the documentary only revealed Ayo Shonaiya version of the history of Afrobeats distorting the actual facts of historical events.
In his caption he said:
THIS IS NOT AFROBEATS BACK STORY.
“Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter” I watched the attempted documentary on Afrobeats by Ayo Shonaya and to say i was disappointed is an understatement.
The poor attempt to change the narrative of the evolution of the Afrobeat Music genre by latter participants who took the narrative from their own perspective while disregarding important events and players is not a true representation of Afrobeat back story.
The Netflix documentary featured distorted sequence and false claims, jumping into the middle of the narrative without proper background check does the history no good.
The Story didn’t even mention Sound on Sound , Furious 2, Healing Child or the early pioneers of Afrobeats.
Starting the post reggea era of Afrobeats music with the return of Kenny and D1 is false.
I wonder how the contributions of people like Edi Lawani, Dapo Adelegan e.t.c got omitted from the discussion.
Claiming Då Trybes music video he directed, revolutionized the act of music video making in the culture is a slap to the face of people like Uzodimma Okpechi, Baba Dee , Kingsley Ogoro to mention a few.
Let it be known that:
– Before The Remedies came from Kano…
– Before The Plantation Bois came from Benue….
– Before any artist in Nigeria, Baba Dee had recorded and shot a video for “change your life style”
– the first song with indigenous Yoruba ryhmes and raps done on a foreign beat likewise touring most University Campuses and doing paid gigs in Lagos.
If that is not a foundation for what others built on, then, I wonder what is?I dare any industry participants to challenge my narrative of the event sequences on the back stories with proof.
The Netflix documentary is a very poor attempt to tell the Afrobeats back story.
And, this is a statement of fact and nothing can change that, not even the Netflix narrative done in the form of a “documentary”.
Afrobeats: The Backstory Can be streamed Exclusively On Netflix.