Can Burna Boy ‘Reign’ Forever?

By Arubayi Keme

The whole world is listening, and as Burna Boy’s popularity continues to spread across the world, he continues to work towards leaving an impact for eternity with his music. One Grammy award later, eelive.ng revisits the Afrofusion singer’s debut into the music industry and analyses how far he’s come.

But first, let’s take it back to the beginning.

The “Real Owners” of Afrobeat

Over the years, a recurrent misconception between two very pivotal terms on the Nigerian music scene, Afrobeat and Afrobeats, has continued to linger. Either due to lack of understanding of their origins or the similarities, with just one letter being the only defining contrast in spelling, it is not surprising that the dilemma of understanding “Afrobeat” and “Afrobeats” arises.

Afrobeat is a music genre that involves the combination of elements of West African musical styles such as ‘fuji’ and highlife with American funk and jazz influences, focusing on chanted vocals, complex intersecting rhythms, and percussion.

Afrobeat is a representation of everything Fela Anikulapo-Kuti stood for and his type of music. The name was coined in the 1960s by Fela himself, the man responsible for pioneering and popularising the style, within and outside Nigeria.

Afrobeats, on the other hand, is of the new age — a revitalised sound originating in Nigeria from the 21st century. It takes in diverse influences and is marked by an eclectic combination of rap, dancehall, and even R&B. Amidst persisting ignorance among music lovers, one artiste who has continuously propagated the difference between both terms is Burna Boy.

“Why won’t he know the difference, when his grandfather managed Fela?” some would ask. But it is more than that. Here is an artiste who has been so deeply rooted in music all his life that he has taken the much-needed time to understand his sound and give it a name, imbibing multiple influences to create a new thing, a whole other genre.

The Musical Prodigy Named Damini Ogulu

Born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu on 2 July 1991, Burna Boy is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern part of Nigeria, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

A look at the man now raises questions about his childhood and upbringing. When questioned about the inspiration behind his stage name, Burna boy responds with a clue.

In a YouTube Special, Burna Boy said; “I used to draw superheroes as a kid. I loved superheroes so I drew a lot. Then I started to like the idea of being a superhero myself, and ‘Burna Boy’ was the name I could come up with.” He has also revealed that he had a normal childhood and would like his kids to enjoy the same type of life.

Burna’s music is a unique mixture of many different genres: Afrobeats, Dancehall, Contemporary Rhythm & Blues, Trap. This perfect blend has come together to form a genre he aptly calls “Afrofusion”.

Growing up, he created music from his surroundings; nothing was spared if it could produce sound. Soundtracks of video games were his usual safe haven until the artiste discovered Fruity Loops and went on to make his own sound. It turns out that he did not just make music by combining sounds from tangible items. He also tried to infuse the feel of the intangible items — emotions, societal conditions — into his music.

“We have heaven and hell in the same place (Nigeria). Heaven for those with money and connections, hell for those with nothing. That’s what I express in my music. When you listen to my songs, you’ll realise that I wasn’t making it for anyone to dance to, but people end up dancing to it. My song ‘Soke’ is a perfect example,” Burna Boy.

Becoming Burna Boy

It is not hard to visualise Burna Boy as a youngster weaving spectacular pieces of music. His grandfather, Benson Idonije, a former DJ and manager of the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, ensured that he soaked in all the eccentricities of a more matured music artiste. Growing up, for him, was largely punctuated by his exposure to classical music, hard-core Hip Hop music and reggae. It was not the child-friendly lyrics of nursery rhymes.

Burna’s mother and manager, Bose Ogulu, mentioned how adventurous and daring Burna had been. She revealed, “While kids his age were being proper and singing nursery rhymes, my son was singing Naughty By Nature and Hip Hop Hurray with all the moves to go. I had to get over the initial embarrassment, realising that I myself wasn’t normal so he was bound to be different himself.”

Burna Boy spent a lot of time in London, a bit of a headstrong young man. The music lover would spend his summers with his uncle but was never at home. He enrolled in a university in London but, being notoriously truant, was constantly on the move, following the music.

Coming back to Nigeria was an attempt to straighten up his life. Having been involved in a police-related issue in London, he had to leave. (The details of this incident have been tactfully erased from his bio.)

Bose Ogulu worked tirelessly to enforce some form of order on his life. At some point, she landed him a job at a radio station to work as an intern. Regardless, little changed. He would obey the call of music and sneak off to a recording studio with his generator set in the trunk of his car. The electricity outages peculiar to this part of the world wouldn’t stop him.

This unrelenting stubbornness eventually proved productive. While on his quest on the streets of Port Harcourt to discover his destiny in music, the head of programmes in one of the radio stations heard one of his songs, Freedom (Freestyle), and gave it airplay.

This marked his official debut into the Nigerian music scene.

The Birth of an African Giant

Slowly but surely, Burna Boy crept up on us and forced us to confront his sound at every turn. From winning an International Act award at the BET awards ceremony to signing endorsement deals with beverage companies, he set his sights on the big prize, the Grammy award.

But not everyone noticed the talented singer right away. For some persons, like Chrissy Udoh, a fashion retailer and businesswoman, he did not come under her radar until about 2016 with his track Pree Me.

“I did not really understand Burna Boy. He sounded nice and different. I liked that about him, but I didn’t really care; so many other jams were reigning at that time. It was when I heard Pree Me that I said, wow, this guy has something that I can enjoy,” she said.

For others, like frontline entertainment journalist and publisher Funso Arogundade, it was love at first sight. “Burna Boy caught my attention as far back as 2012 when he dropped his debut hit, Like To Party, as a budding artiste under Aristokrat Records.”

Lagos company executive and music enthusiast Abiola Mohammed echoes similar sentiments. She referred to him as a “force to reckon with” when she heard his hit track, Like To Party.

“Killin Dem”

In 2011, Burna Boy released two mixtapes, Burn Notice and Burn Identity. However, his big break didn’t come until the release of Like to Party. LeriQ, who produced the song, went on to be his official producer, also producing his ground-breaking debut album, L.I.F.E – (Leaving an Impact For Eternity).

The L.I.F.E album, released by Aristokrat Records, sold 40,000 copies on its first day in the market. Its marketing rights were sold to Uba Pacific for ₦10 million. The album included singles like: Like to Party, Tonight, Always Love You, Run My Race and Yawa Dey.

In 2014, Burna Boy cut ties with the label, and created his own record label called Spaceship Entertainment in 2015. Under the new label, he released his sophomore album, On a Spaceship.

He followed up his sophomore album in 2016 with a 7-track EP, Redemption, which housed the lead single, Pree Me.

In 2017, Burna Boy signed with Bad Habit/Atlantic Records in the United States and Warner Group internationally. His third studio album, Outside, marked his major-label debut.

The rise to international stardom seemed to be a bit rapid, with each year recording a significant tilt towards greater success for the artiste. But the question remained: when the momentum dies, will Burna Boy’s music stand the test of time?

The New Shape of Nigerian Music

We have undoubtedly crossed the threshold of having only three major genres of music: Rap, Reggae and R&B. Now, there are a lot more genres of music. Burna Boy’s Afrofusion sound has already become a home staple, with many other artistes taking on the style of music.

Globally, Burna is reaping the benefits of his dare. His third album, Outside, received critical acclaim and was ranked by Pulse Nigeria and Nigerian Entertainment Today as the best Nigerian album of 2018. The cocktail of Afrobeats, dancehall, reggae and road rap, featured vocals from English musicians including J Hus, Lily Allen and Mabel on hit tracks; Rock Your Body, Streets of Africa, Koni Baje, Sekkle Down, Heaven’s Gate and Ye.

The album won him the Album of the Year award at the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards and in February 2018. It also debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. To top it all up, the album’s biggest single Ye ended up as the biggest song of 2018. But he didn’t stop there.

Burna Boy went on to release another album, African Giant, which increased his popularity globally. It was such a hit that the album received a Grammy nomination in the Global Music Album category. Although he didn’t win, he came back more intentionally with his most recent Twice As Tall album.

A well-deserved Grammy award later, one thing is clear. Only a few Nigerian artistes have broken grounds with their music in a similar magnitude as Burna Boy.

Is Burna Boy here to stay forever?

His mother, Bose Ogulu, said in an interview, “One of his teachers in school called me when he was about leaving secondary school and told me my son was a star and would go on to be famous. He even told me to get ready for the exploits he would do.”

That teacher was not wrong. Burna Boy silently, consciously and consistently sang his way into the hearts of millions of people across the world. That is no small feat. Many believe the Afrofusion singer will make an indelible mark in the history of African music, much like Fela.

Linda Okafor, a PR executive says, “Burna Boy makes good music for his audience but it all depends on how he handles his career and his craft. We have seen many of these so-called rising stars just diminish. Look at D’Banj. I really thought he was on to something but look at where we are now.”

A comparison that should be drawn carefully according to Benneth Odigie, who had this to say; “There’s the Fela sound and there’s the Burna Boy sound. He knows the Fela height is sacred; what he has done is to allow it to influence him so much that it has pushed him to identify his own sound and own it.”

Further buttressing that point, Odili Azinge emphatically stated, “It is wrong to compare Burna Boy to any other artiste. He doesn’t sound like anybody or anything you know or have heard of. He has perfectly mixed up so many different sounds that with each track he drops it is impossible to put a label on it. Yes, you know it is Burna Boy, but it’s now left for you to figure out what to call it because for the man he’s just enjoying himself.”

Alarm Bells

We can agree that Burna didn’t suddenly catch the attention of the public; it was a silent but conscious and consistent growth, finding his way melodiously into the depths of the souls of many. Never forcing one to like him, never in one’s face, but confident that his music is good enough to hook anybody at first listen.

But there is a note of caution. Award-winning writer and journalist, Kan sounded one in a 2018 article he called “The Rise and Fall of Burna Boy”. Referring to a trend he noticed in the talented artiste, Kan wrote: “ In the space of one week, Burna Boy has displayed a character flaw that could well be the harbinger of his fall. His Burna Live concert started seven hours late but the audience didn’t seem to mind. The king was on stage and the party happened. But his behaviour at the Style by Zenith concert shows that he may very well have a huge problem on his hands. Bumped all the way up as headliner, Burna Boy was a no show when the time came for him to take the stage.”

Although Burna Boy himself seems to have anticipated controversies and career-threatening bumps on his path when he sang the lyrics in a 2015 track, “Legendary career no dey fit smooth”, Kan warns him of the beastly nature of fame, which like “a dog that feeds on its brood is self-immolating and cannibalizing.”

But as Arogundade and Mohammed say in separate discussions with eelive.ng, Burna Boy’s management, which is now safely in the shielding hands of his mother, may be the protective wings he needs from all the self-destructive tendencies that success and youth inflict on souls. In Burna Boy, all things being equal would have his deserved day with posterity.

Originally published on 4th August, 2019.