Rapper Folarin Falana, better known by his stage as Falz, hails from Nigeria. He recently talked about the influences for his activism style.
He made it clear that his support for social causes predates the 2020 ENDSARS Protest in a recent episode of the Menisms podcast.
Falz cited his father, Femi Falana, as a major inspiration when attributing his activism to his family history.
He also spoke about how Fela’s music had changed his outlook. Falz pointed out that his advocacy is a long-standing feature of his personality rather than a recent growth.
He clarified that while the EndSars events of 2020 inspired him to become more involved, his dedication to social problems has always been.
To quote him:
“It was definitely not the ENDSARS moment that made me start activism; it was way before that moment that I’ve been doing this. I won’t lie, 100% of my background has played a huge part because this is what I grew up on.”
“Apart from the Fela records, my dad is someone who has been an activist for maybe over 40 years so having someone like that as a father, everywhere I went, someone had a story about what he did for them. So that level of selflessness, which was an example for me so early on, played a part in shaping me and who I became. That was always at the back of my mind so with everything I was doing with my record, I drew inspiration from everything around me.”
“I’ve always been conscious and it’s always been there, so it’s not like I woke up one day. 2020 was a time when so much was happening that we needed to take a further step from just talking and we had to walk the walk. Of course, I was going to be in front because I had been talking the talk anyway.”
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