Meet Ayinla Kollintin The Legendary Fuji Musician

Fuji Music developed in Nigeria during the 1950s, with its roots in traditional Yoruba wéré music, an improvisational style performed by Muslims during Rama dan. Ayinla Kollintin was the one to popularise the genre. Leaving his life as a soldier to pursue music in the early 1970s, Ayinla took the Fuji sound pioneered by his close friend Ayinde Barrister and updated it to include the influence of more modern instruments and sounds. This article contains the early life, and biography of Ayinla Kollintin and how he came to fame, so meet Ayinls Kollintin The legendary Fuji musician.

Who is Ayinla Kollintin?

Kolawole Rasaq Ilori popularly known as General Ayinla Kollintin is a Nigerian Fuji musician and one of the pioneers of the genre. He hailed from Ilota, a Town on the outskirts of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. He is also called Baba Alatika, Kebe-n-Kwara, Baba Alagbado.Kollintin alongside his friend and competitor, Ayinde Barrister, dominated the Fuji music scene from the 1970s through the 1990s. His music style is a blend of Muslim-dominated Apala and waka, which is related to juju music. The below Data Shows the Full Name, Profession, and marital status of The legendary Fuji Musician

Bio Data

Early Life

The Nigerian Army recruited General Ayinla Kollintin during the Civil War and this was where he learned the rudimentary of music. The year is 1970, and the nation of Nigeria is emerging from its bloody civil war. However, the horrors were not yet over for much of the population. The military regime that led the country post-war ruled over its people with an iron fist, suppressing the rights of ordinary people. Out of every tragedy comes new strength, and the artistic response to these tumultuous political times in Nigeria was profound.

How Ayinla Kollintin came to fame

The Legendary Fuji Musician General Ayinla Kollintin’s music career started in 1965 when he won a competition organized by the late President of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe. He then began recording for  Nigerian Emi in 1974 and in 1978 achieved a pronounced, but temporary, lead over Barrister when his introduction of the powerful bata drum (fuji had until that time relied almost exclusively on talking, or “squeeze”, drums) caught the imagination of record buyers. Between the mid-1970s and late ’80s, Kollintin ranked with Barrister as the leading star of Nigerian fuji music – such as apala and waka, a Muslim-dominated relation of juju, retaining that style’s vocal and percussion ingredients but abandoning its use of electric guitars to obtain a more traditional, roots-based sound

In 1982, when fuji was beginning to seriously rival juju as Nigeria’s most popular contemporary roots music, he set up his label, Kollintin Records, through which he released no less than 30 albums over the next five years. He remains a significant figure in the history of Fuji music. In the years following the Civil War, legendary artists like Fela Kuti, William Onyeabor, and Ayinde Barrister rose to prominence. Often using their music as a means of speaking out against Nigeria’s military rule, these artists managed to produce some of the most innovative sounds of the 20th century, though much of their work has remained largely ignored by Anglo-centric music scenes.

Conclusion

Now in his seventh decade, The Legendary Fuji Musician Ayinla has remained one of Nigeria’s most prolific artists throughout much of his life. Never jaded by his success, Ayinla remains humble with an obvious adoration for Nigerian music scenes. In 2019, he told The Sun in Nigeria, “I pray for the young ones to do more and achieve more than we did. In my latest release, I prayed for new and younger artists that all of them would prosper. I also admonished them to respect their elders because they will grow old someday.

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