"The only way we can move forward is if we all know that Africa is our home and make sure our home is a place that is respected
Burna Boy believes there’s something deeper at work when it comes to his popularity in the UK. “Most of the people from the UK, if not all the black people from the UK, and the people of colour – they all know where they’re from,” he says. “They know exactly where their roots are.” This, he says, makes it easier for people to tune into his wavelength. It took longer for his music to find an audience in the US; this, he says, is a consequence of African Americans not having the same close connection with Africa. “Unfortunately, the brothers in the US have been stripped of their whole knowledge of self,” he says. “So it’s a bit harder for them, you know?” When he collaborated with the US rappers YG and Future, he said he was “bringing my brothers home”.
There’s a whole generation of African – and often Nigerian – artists who, along with Burna Boy, have taken the Afrobeats sound global. Davido, Wizkid, Olamide, Naira Marley, Tiwa Savage and Zlatan – all have had success in Europe or the US, but Burna Boy is a slightly different proposition. His aesthetic borrows from hip-hop’s sartorial playbook: thick gold chains adorn his neck, he has a vast collection of rings, and when he smiles he often reveals gold- and jewel-encrusted teeth grills. Tattoos cover most of his upper body, arms and hands. But even here, Africa (and specifically Nigeria) is everywhere. His tattoos include a brick wall with the names of family members written on it, and there’s a portrait of Fela Kuti on his left forearm. The title of his first album, Leaving An Impact For Eternity, has also been inked, and he has the phrase “Omo Naija” – child of Nigeria – above the country’s coat of arms on his shoulder.
When in June this year he won a BET award for best international male, he used the moment to make a point about Africa, colonialism and Black Lives Matter. “I’d like to use this opportunity to say that some time around 1835, there was a mission to turn Africa into a dominated nation,” he said, after being congratulated by Naomi Campbell via video link. “Now is the time to overturn that, and go back to the royalty that we were, because, in order for black lives to matter, Africa must matter.” The year before, he managed to miss picking up his award, but his mum – who is also his manager – stepped in, telling the audience that he’d want to say, “Every black person should please remember that you were Africans before you became anything else.” A sample of her speech appears on African Giant.
Why did he make that point specifically? “I feel like the only way we can move forward is if we all know that this is our home and we make sure our home is a place that is respected,” he says. “Once everybody respects your home, then they have no choice but to respect you.” He says the problem is worse for black people in America, because “you can’t demand respect in the place where they don’t believe that you belong”. When I ask if he supports Black Lives Matter he says: “I’m more of an NFAC kind of guy,” referring to the Not Fucking Around Coalition, the armed African-American group made up of ex-military personnel that has been compared to the Black Panthers. While most stars might dance around a subject like this, and offer a general comment about anti-racism, Burna is happy to jump in with both feet and back a group whose leader has advocated for the state of Texas becoming an independent country for African-Americans. This isn’t safe ground for pop stars, but Burna clearly doesn’t see himself as just that – his goals are much bigger. He’s said previously that his aim is “the eventual unity of Africa”, and to understand his philosophy you need to go back to his childhood.
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Born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu on 2 July 1991 in the oil city of Port Harcourt in south-east Nigeria, Burna Boy says he knew he was going to be a star from the age of two. As a toddler, he would dance and sing when his parents took him to restaurants. When he was a little older, he fell in love with US rappers such as Naughty By Nature, DMX, Big Pun and Busta Rhymes via his uncle, while his father introduced him to the dancehall of Buju Banton. He describes his upbringing as being “not too rich, not poor” but it’s fair to say it was comfortable. His father worked in construction, while his mother was a translator for the West African Chambers of Commerce; she is fluent in French, Italian and German. Meanwhile, his maternal grandfather managed Fela Kuti’s career. What was a typical weekend like in the Burna Boy household when he was growing up? “My grandfather playing Afrobeat, usually Fela, my dad working on the barbecue, and my mum just causing a scene,” he says. “And me trying to find a corner to smoke some weed.”
As a teenager he was rebellious, and not particularly gifted at school. In the early 2010s he came to London to continue his education, but when I ask him whether it was university or college, he won’t engage: “All of that,” he says, dismissively. In the end, he never attended a class, and instead spent his time with friends in Brixton. Like his hero Fela Kuti, he came to the UK for an academic education and got one in music instead, taking back some of the grime and slang he’d heard in south London to Lagos. It was then that he began to make his own music, which at that point was closer to the US R&B he used to watch on MTV. “Only later, when I started finding myself and understanding who I am, did I start appreciating African music and everything my grandad had been trying to put into my hands since I was a kid,” he says."
Burna Boy: ‘Brothers in the US have been stripped of their knowledge of self’ | Music | The Guardian
The Nigerian pop star on Black Lives Matter, how British fans find it easier to tune into his wavelength – and why everyone’s got it wrong about Muammar Gaddafi<br>
@Amajorfucup @Soul On Ice @xfactor @VAiz4hustlaz
Dude is basically saying his shit dont sell here cuz we lost and not as cultured as the continent or the UK so we cant appreciate it.
