Nigerian born global Afrobeats star Burna Boy, in a recent chat with New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter Zane Lowe, posited that he had predicted his greatness as a music star many years ago.
The 32-year-old singer, born Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, revealed the inspiration behind his seventh album entitled ‘I Told Them….’ saying he had predicted everything happening to him and his career in tweets that many people doubted.
He said: “They say a lot of times that prophets are not really recognised in their own home and shit. So this one is for the part of my own home and the people in my own home who didn’t believe or doubt it, or still doubt, or any type of thing.
“And not just them, it’s like everyone that ever heard me speak in the past or when I’d first started. You can go back to my old tweets and stuff. I basically predicted everything that’s happening now. So this is basically that. It’s fun to tell people something is true, and they doubt, and then they end up seeing it. There’s no greater feeling.”
The multiple award winning singer with the national title of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic, MFR, who is sharing the sounds of the African continent on global stages, also opined that he doesn’t get the deserved credits for his musical accomplishments in Nigeria. He stressed how he wants credit from places where it actually matters to him most.
“I’m not going to say I don’t want credit because everyone wants credit for what they do and shit. For me, it’s more like I want credit from places where it actually matters. Even though in reality don’t mean nothing but places where you can say why, you can explain and it makes sense to everybody. That’s the type of shit I want. I want to go somewhere where it’s like they see the work and they see everything, the journey and everything, and they’re like, “This is amazing. Yeah, congratulations.”
“That’s the type of shit that means something. You don’t get that in my country. It means something to the people who are not part of the game in a way. It means something to people who have nothing to gain or lose and no stakes in the matter.”
As his seventh album was released on Friday, April 25, expressed pride in his achievements so far saying, “That’s the thing I’ve beat my chest the most about. It’s the fact that, yeah, not only did I do it on my own terms and all that, I did it against all odds. You know what I mean? And against the wishes of the powers that be in my environment. You know what I mean? So yeah, it’s something I’m really proud of.”
With a heavy musical influence from Afrobeat progenitor, Fela Kuti, Burna Boy says he’s thankful for having the ability to experience the organic nature of what the late Abami Eda was and essence of what he stood for. “I am grateful for the fact that he existed in his time so that we could get and experience the true organic nature of what he was and the essence of what he stood for and the message he passed across to us.”
Interestingly, the singer, who has his mother as his manager, identifies similarities between New York and Lagos saying, “To me, it looked just like Lagos, only with more tall buildings closer together. The same energy as Lagos. It’s the same… Everybody’s in a hurry. I felt like, “Wow. This can’t be what they’ve been showing me on TV.” This doesn’t look like TV land… this place is very sentimental for me because starting from PlayStation theatre all the way to Citi Field now. It’s been a journey.”
