You may not yet know his name, but you will almost certainly know his work. Lemi Ghariokwu has designed over 2000 record sleeves, 26 of which adorn some of Fela Kuti’s most famous albums. In a working relationship spanning more than 20 years Lemi created a visual identity not only for Fela but for Afrobeat as a whole. His sleeve designs are the perfect visual expression of the music they house, boldly criticising social and political injustices in Nigerian society. His talent enabled him to become the first Nigerian to make a career from record sleeve design.

This month the Rich Mix gallery in Shoreditch is hosting an exhibition of Lemi’s work. Titled ‘Arts Own Kind’, the exhibition focuses on Lemi’s designs for Fela, but also includes other sleeve designs as well as paintings and illustrations from Lemi’s vast portfolio of work. The exhibition was launched with an Afrobeat extravaganza featuring a DJ set by Rich Medina and a live performance by Dele Sosimi. The band played a mix of their own songs as well as being joined by Fela’s former drummer, the legendary Tony Allen for a selection of his own numbers.

A few days later I met Lemi on board ARC, a boat moored at Hale Wharf, Tottenham that has been converted into an art gallery where Lemi will be exhibiting again later this year.

Shook: So have you always been artistic, or when did you discover your talent?

Lemi Ghariokwu: I have been artistic from my childhood, I remember vividly about when I was 7 years old, I was down by the roadside in Agege, where I was born in Lagos. The roads were very bare and sandy so I was standing by the roadside watching the cars. There used to be these big cars called Chevrolet and they had some kind of melodies in the horns like (sings) “Pah, pah, pah – pah, pah, pah!” So I make a sketch of the car in the road, on the side. I was drawing the Chevrolet in the sand and the Chevrolet was passing by and it was about 6 inches close to me and I was shocked! People around started rebuking me, “Stupid boy, go and find a better past time!” So I’ve been conscious (of my ability) since then and in primary school I did a lot of drawings in class, that was the only kind of art class I took in my life. I remember when I was in secondary school for 2 years I needed to get something from the primary school. I went and as I got into that particular class the teacher saw me and he was happy to see me and he said to the other kids “that’s the kid that did that drawing” and he had a drawing I had done of the Benin mascot. So it was still hanging in that class 2 years after I left primary school. Those are the memories I have of my childhood about art, so I really discovered my talent then.

S: Did your parents encourage you with your artwork?

LG: My mum did, my mum really encouraged me. My dad was a bit, um, disturbed, he particularly wanted me to be a mechanical engineer and I took technical class you know in the hope to becoming an engineer but by the time I finished secondary school the time between your certificate arriving and getting into University or going to get a job, I kept on drawing and I’m still trying to fathom how I got the idea to start going to the television station. It was the only television station then, called NTS – National Television Service. It was just live shows no pre-recorded programmes, I would go and do live drawings of the presenters of programmes like Lagos Scene, Youth Scene, programmes like that. So before I left home I would tell my neighbours to watch me and when I came back I would ask them “Did I do well?!” You know, I never got to see myself! So I became a little bit popular, you know you watch the programme and you see this small boy, artist, coming and do drawings.

S: How old were you then?

LG: I was 17, maybe 18.

S: So how did you get into sleeve design?

LG: I had met a guy who was playing a kind of afro rock, he had a hit with a song called ‘Let’s Try’. So I met him at the television studio, he came to perform and brought his guitar. So I was very happy to meet him and I think he was very happy to meet me so we became good friends and it was actually his album sleeve that was my first album sleeve ever published, I designed his album sleeve. The name of his band was World Affairs and the album was called ‘Let’s Try’. So that was the first album I designed, but I didn’t pay it any mind, I think that was early ’74 when I did that.

S: How did you end up designing sleeves for Fela?

LG: Well later in 1974, two things happened that decided my professional career. The first one was the release of the Bruce Lee film ‘Enter The Dragon’, which was a huge blockbuster. In those days I used to do portraits for people in my neighbourhood, there was a little bar next door to my parents place and the owner called me and said that he wanted me to do a painting of Bruce Lee’s poster for him. So I did that, so he hung it in his drink place. The second thing was Fela released this album called ‘Roforofo Fight’ so I got a copy, I was looking at the record sleeve and I wanted to do a drawing of this as practice. I wanted to illustrate the title, ‘Roforofo’ in Yoruba means ‘mud’ so ‘Roforofo Fight’ means ‘Mud Fight’, so I then drew Fela dancing on mud, not fighting but dancing. Then I put in the graphics, so it was like I did a version of my own cover of ‘Roforofo Fight’. Now there was this journalist called Babatunde Harrison who was working for Sunday Punch in Lagos and he was a regular at that pub. He went to drink and he saw the Bruce Lee poster, so he asked “who did that?” and they said it’s the small boy next door. The journalist said he wanted to see me because he thought the work was really very good. So he came to see me and I showed him my portfolio, he saw the Fela cover so then he said “Ah! Can you do covers?” so I said, err – you know I wasn’t really sure myself! So he said actually 2 days ago he and Fela were discussing the possibility of getting sleeves illustrated, because his music was getting, you know conscious. So when he said that I didn’t believe him, I thought he was drunk! So he said he would bring a Fela photograph for me to do a portrait. The next day he brought the photograph, so I said to myself, ok this man is serious. So I did the Fela portrait in 24 hours, the third day he was coming to drink and I was already waiting for him! My mum had given me 5 Naira to frame it, so I showed him and he said “Ah, I’m not going to drink anymore. Let’s go!” So I said to my mum he wants to take me to Fela’s compound, and that why I always remember my mum supported me throughout, she wasn’t reluctant to let me go, she said ok I should go with him. So when we got to Fela’s place and he saw the portrait he really loved it and he used two words that I’d never heard before until that day and I will never forget them, he said, “Wow! Goddamn!” So he actually offered me money, in those days I used to earn 30 Naira for my portraits, he didn’t know this and he wrote out a cheque for 120 Naira! But I gave it back to him and said no Fela, I give it to you from the bottom of my heart, I don’t want any money. He was really surprised, and so he tore out a sheet of paper and he wrote out a gate pass, he wrote ‘Please admit bearer. Free of charge.’ So that was my pass to Kalakuta (Fela’s compound). A couple of weeks later, Fela’s house was attacked by the police it was headline news on the radio, television everywhere. So I was naturally eager to find out how he was, the journalist came (to the bar) and I said to him how is Fela? Is he ok? He said he is ok, he is in the hospital so he took me to the hospital. When we got there, the room where Fela was had maybe 20 or 30 people and he was talking, so we inched our way closer to the bed so he could see us and then Fela said “the artist!” and those words ‘the artist’ I felt it deep in my spirit. Then he started talking about a song he was going to write to lampoon the police called ‘Alagbon Close’ so that was the first sleeve I designed for him in November 1974.

S: Did Fela have any input into the designs?

LG: His own input was basically the music. My relationship really developed positively with Fela, I was in a privilege position to do those sleeves the way I did. He treated me like a son, like one of his closest friends, though the youngest I was like a confidant and also a comrade in arms because I had in fact my own Pan African ideological thinking before I met Fela, so meeting him helped to ignite it in me. So he actually gave me total freedom (to do the sleeves) and I think these days it would be really hard to find someone to give one that kind of freedom and leeway.

S: So would you be listening to the music while you were designing the sleeves?

LG: Yes I was privileged in some instances to witness the birth of some of the songs, the nucleus of the particular tune and I there and then overstood the message and the concept he was trying to put across in the tune. So I then would translate that message from my own perspective so it takes it onto a broader level, so my art played the role of a supplementary thing. It could stand on its own just the like the music could stand on its own. So that’s why I played that branding role so effectively. It is now that I understand I had to brand him as a revolutionary, as a hero.

S: It was very brave of you to make those political and social statements with your artwork in Nigeria at that time. Did you ever get into any trouble with the police or the authorities?

LG: No, every time it happened I wasn’t around, I would just come later and see the whole thing or hear the whole story. But I remember I did a cartoon, we had this newsletter called YAP News, YAP is an acronym for Young African Pioneers, it was a political movement to ideologise the youth in Nigeria. We had published a newsletter criticising the way soldiers on the road were using horse whips. Any driver could be horse whipped, they would drag him onto the road and whip him. We photographed a soldier horse whipping a driver in the road and put it on the front page, then I added a cartoon showing a soldier horse whipping an old man and I signed my name. But there was no editor’s name or anything except my own. So the military government had their monthly meeting and they presented the newsletter as evidence because the head of police was complaining about Fela’s excessiveness so they used it as evidence and noted my name. And one top brass in the police was a kinsman of mine and he was in the meeting so he covered up for me, he said he’s just a small boy, Fela’s using his name but it’s him doing these things. So he sent word to my mum and he warned me that I should be very careful, so I went a little on that on that ground from then! So that was the closest thing.

S: Your more recent work that I have seen is still very much making social and political comments. Have things changed much in Nigeria since the work you were doing for Fela?

LG: In life they say the more things change the more things remain the same! There have been changes in Nigeria but the changes remain the same and deteriorated worse than in the 70s I call my children in Lagos and sometimes their phone is not working. When Fela was singing and shouting even then the electricity was more constant. So now everything that Fela has talked about is just replaying itself in 3D slow motion! And now there is too much religiosity everyone is going to church and to the mosque and they are not sincere corruption is stinking to the high heavens! The people who are stealing the money are going to church and to the mosque and they get blessed its hypocritical!

S: I know you are a big reggae fan, do you feel reggae relates to the themes of Afrobeat?

LG: I love reggae music a lot because I see it is as exactly what Fela tried to do with Afrobeat. The unfortunate thing about our own profession is we don’t have enough people, enough soldiers on the Afrobeat thing and that’s a big shame because of the effect of colonialism on the African man. Reggae music is Pan African and very spiritual, I love it that a group of people can come up so strong, everywhere reggae is a recognised genre of music and Jamaican patois people can relate to it and identify with it. There is power in commitment to a cause and that is why I love reggae music.

S: Where are you going next with your career?

LG: Right now I am very eager to solidify my foundation my legacy and more than ever I am more committed now because I am very conscious of the role art can play in society, so I want to play that role effectively with my art so I will be constantly relevant. So I have just come up with new work I have done 10 pieces of artwork on plastic using modern technology I print on plastic on and then hand cut some portions of the plastic, it is something I just came up with this year and I have an exhibition in Lagos in July. I want to call my work Afro Folk Art and brand myself to relevant to the new generation of kids in Nigeria and elsewhere. I am also ready to tour the world with my legacy you know my album covers and my art anywhere in the world I am invited, I love to go and share my experience of life.

S: And finally you have designed over 2000 record sleeves is it possible to choose a favourite from those and what would it be?

LG: That’s a tough question and I have a tough answer. It’s not just one, I love ‘Yellow Fever’, ‘Beasts of No Nation’, ‘Monkey Banana’, ‘Zombie’, then ‘Another System’ – that’s an album cover I did for somebody and that one has been acquired by the Museum of Modern Arts in New York. So I have many favourites, they all mean something to me.

Art’s Own Kind – Afrobeat and the Art of Lemi Ghariokwu is showing at Rich Mix from Mon 8 June – Mon 6 July.

Rich Mix website