By: Bobby Nishimwe
For quite some time, I hesitated to release this review as I found myself having difficulties just focusing on the art and not the artist. Burna Boy certainly prides himself in being a complicated figure and his rounds of interviews for his new project certainly did not make that any easier for my critical pen.
Burna Boy has dropped his eighth career album “I Told Them.” This album’s release was preceded by an obnoxious, braggadocios, and contradictory spirit that left no prisoners behind. Burna’s press tour before the drop of the album created more controversy than excitement for this project. As he is very well known to do, Burna is not an artist who is careful with his words rather sees himself as an entity immune from the consequences of bad media coverage; akin to an ambassador who commits a crime in their nation of assignment.
Although, I would caution Burna to remember that immunity does not shield one from expulsion and diplomatic fallout.
His rounds of American media appearances were painful to watch not because they were going to stifle the overall performance of the album but unravel a steady deterioration of Burna’s reputation in the eyes of his African fans.
His Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe at times felt like Burna's stage to let off his grievances with Nigeria and the African music industry wit-large. His main issues with his home country can be summarized as a son showcasing some level of detachment, paranoia and grave disappointment in his place of birth.
Zane Lowe is by all means a brilliant presenter and DJ who has a deep grasp on popular western music culture but his limited knowledge of African music was painfully clear in this interview. The only African music knowledge that Zane seemed to know was Fela, and even that lacked a level of nuance that he could have used to provoke pushback on some of Burna’s brazen comments on the African music landscape. Apple Music should have at the very least equipped Zane with an abundance of research relating to both past and contemporary African music knowledge. Western media houses are not only diminishing the quality of African content they are producing but are doing a disservice to African people when they don’t utilize research teams with in-depth understanding of our culture.
In this interview, Burna Boy made a comment that “African music….Afrobeats is mostly about nothing. There is no substance to it. Like nobody is talking about anything.”
I can’t fathom a more nonsensical statement from someone who has benefited from this same music form. To turn around and cast such a grave indictment of an art-form that has transformed global African music is stupid if not betrayal.
If Zane had been equipped with the proper research, he could have pushed back on this insulting statement as it paints a false picture of the social commentary espoused in contemporary African music. Every genre of music touches on a wide range of life experiences, themes and even nonsense. To single out Afrobeats as a music form that carries no valuable social commentary is to disrespect the likes of Mohbad, Asake, Omah Lay, Wizkid and more who through their various projects have touched on the struggles they’ve faced from society or personal life. These Nigerian artists have given us songs that showcased their vulnerabilities which in effect allowed us to connect more with their art.
This album was very hip-hop forward and his choice of media tours (Complex, Apple Music & Rap Radar), overall style and his sentiment led me to believe that Burna Boy sees Afrobeats as lacking story-telling that centers around the hardships of life like those predominant in early and to an extent contemporary Hip-Hop music.
I can only describe it as a fascination with how Hip-Hop has been able to incorporate street-life themes in its story-telling format which an individual like Burna Boy might interpret as evidence of substance within the genre. Afrobeats in the eyes of Burna Boy lacks this raw nature of storytelling, henceforth why he doesn’t consider the genre to have substance. Such a view is not only shallow but lacking in critical and contextual understanding of how and where the two genres emerged.
Hip-Hop emerged from the streets of Bronx at a time when black militant language against oppressive systems within American society was prevalent. Hip-Hop became a powerful musical outlet for young black people to express their overall frustrations with the American project, to where we are now with a genre that’s more commercialized and limited in its critical lens of social conditions.
Well, the reality is that Afrobeats does not have the same inner-city “racialize” roots. How this genre emerged in contemporary times was through a need for popular African music that could be enjoyed. The rise of it was not for the need of political consciousness or movement against an oppressive entity; as was true of Fela’s Afrobeat. The sentiments of popular Nigerian music form of the 70s and 80s cannot be compared to that of today’s as the environment through which they came about is entirely different. The former developed under military dictatorship whereas the latter was under a democratic regime (this is not to prescribe a conclusion of social, economic and material gain to the lives of Nigerians).
The formation of inner-city "hoods" in African cities (with the exception of South Africa), specifically Nigeria aren’t racialize at all. So the only people who would feel the need to talk about street-life are those who came from impoverished inner city upbringing. Even having said that, the African inner-city street life is not a theme that is heavily perpetuated in African media, so a large majority of Africans wouldn’t be able to easily relate or necessarily identify with that way of life. Even those who may have been brought up in the “streets,” probably have a much higher association with their ancestral village.
Now the African “village” life is a theme that most Africans can resonate with, as that is a picture that has been portrayed over and over in African media. So with that context, you come to understand that street-life aesthetics is not an intrinsically resonant theme for the core Afrobeats fanbase. And when thinking about village life, you also have to understand that themes of family and marriage tend to be very dominant in a lot of popular and personal conversations. So, it is only natural that you tend to find a lot of Afrobeats artist discussing about “Love,” “Marriage,” and “Family,” which to the surface may exude a semblance of positivity but it does not mean that every musical discussion of these topics is solely focused on the happy and not sad times.
And you know what, I do not see the problem with the majority of African music touching on subjects that exude joy in the lives of our people. We have more than enough hardships just from our mere existence, if our music can be the outlet to bring us the goodness of life then so be it.
Burna spoke about how he identifies with the number 7, signifying God, a reference that aligns with biblical symbolism. Hence, the song “Big 7,” which he dedicates to the late legendary fashion icon, Virgil Abloh and late Punjabi rapper, Sidhu Moose Wala. Both of these individuals were considered titans in their respective industries and Burna wants to emulate that same high regard. Seeing the level of appreciation that people had for these two individuals is something that Burna Boy is seemingly searching.
He sees himself as the “God” of African music and that with such a self-prescribed title he ought to receive reverence from his people that is fit for a deity-like figure. Now personally I think that this is diabolical and narcissistic of Burna. I never understood why celebrities like those of Burna’s caliber believe that people should be worshiping them like they hold the power of life and death in their hands.
In the interview, he makes it a point to say that Nigerians do not show him enough love and appreciation. Hinting at the idea that he is treated better outside of Nigeria. Well here’s the thing, Burna Boy has always been a controversial figure within the Nigerian music industry. Since the beginning, he has had a bit of a rocky relationship with his fans in Nigeria but that has never stopped Nigerians both at home and abroad from supporting him. It seems as if all of a sudden, Burna has forgotten who his day one fans were.
The same Burna who stomped his boot in the face of a Nigerian fan who tried to climb the stage in Lagos, is also lamenting about Nigerians not loving him enough. See, Burna Boy would never do that to an Oyinbo fan in the West because he fully understands that the legal structure in Nigeria affords him immunity whereas a country like the U.S. would see him getting charged if not at the very least sued for such an action.
Burna has lost the plot with regards to maintaining a strong affectionate relationship with his African fans. It is not surprising as most of his promotional press was geared towards a predominantly American hip-hop audience. I want to make it clear that in this day and age, what constitutes the hip-hop audience is a predominantly middle to upper-class white demo that has very little real-life attachment to the themes of hip-hop music.
Overall this project was pleasantly digestible if you happened to ignore the unsavory plate of Burna Boy’s promotional misgivings.
This was definitely a hip-hop album with an afro-fusion twist. I appreciate the fact that he didn’t include any Amapiano sounds on the project, because I feel like the sound is overused (don’t twist this for I am not a piano fan, I am and will be one till the end of time) and dare I say at times abused by non-South African artists.
There’s no denying Burna Boy’s incredible musical talent, but there’s also no denying that he should stop doing interviews for the sake of his legacy.
His track “Thanks” feat. J. Cole was underwhelming to say the least, and that is not in a positive way. It was another dig at Nigerians, where Burna conveyed a scolding tone towards his fellow country mates. He calls himself “the blueprint” for the growth of African music, yet overlooks the decades of groundwork that had to be laid by those who came before him. Burna came off as a child throwing a tantrum for not getting to eat the entire cake by himself during their birthday.
On top of this, J. Cole’s verse felt like an after-thought. To feature a great artist like J. Cole on your album should at least mean something instead of a mere favor that one could have done without.
Burna has lost the art of humility and appreciating the level of privilege that his music career has given him.
Let me leave you all with this quote, “You Go Explain Tire, No Evidence.” -Burna Boy
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