The second half of the 2010s has seen a significant rise in the U.S.’s interest in music coming out of West Africa. “Those that coined the term, they don’t really care for accuracy or historical context.” It’s a name that was basically created just to take all of this different Nigerian music and package it together so that it could be digestible and distributable,” Tunde Ogundipe, Spotify’s global lead of African music and culture, told me earlier this week.
“When people say ‘Afrobeats,’ they’re talking about Nigerian pop music. American and British music arbiters tend to lazily label much of the modern music emerging from Africa, and especially West Africa, “Afrobeats.” Though the umbrella term has made for easy categorization, it strips African artists of their musical distinctions. (Sometimes he does this quite cheekily: On “Streets of Africa,” a stellar track from his 2018 mixtape, Outside, Burna calls himself “Fela Kuti with the hoes,” a reference to Kuti’s notorious womanizing.) The link between the two isn’t incidental: Burna’s grandfather managed the late singer, whose music-alongside American artists such as DMX, Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan, and Jamaican artists such as Vybz Kartel and Buju Banton-soundtracked Burna’s early years in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.īut in the West, Kuti’s Afrobeat has taken on a more nebulous afterlife. The 28-year-old Burna often sings in Yoruba and welcomes comparisons to Kuti, whom he cites as an inspiration. In Nigeria, Burna Boy occupies a position not entirely dissimilar: Openly revered by his nation as a superstar, he’s frequently mobbed whenever he returns home.īurna’s music, for example, is most intuitively categorized as “Afro-fusion,” which encompasses a melange of influences including pop, R&B, dancehall, reggae, and Afrobeat, the latter genre pioneered by the late Nigerian legend Fela Kuti.
It was his maternal grandfather who was the creative in the family, managing Nigerian legend Fela Kuti, who died in 1997, and whom Burna Boy idolizies to this day. Who is Damini Ogulu?īurna Boy, born July 2, 1991, grew up in southern Nigeria’s Port Harcourt, where his father ran a welding business and his mother was a lecturer and translator. His body of work includes hits like ” Like To Party”, ” Tonight”, “Yawa Dey”,” Run My Race “, ” Don Gorgon “, Soke and Pree Me. Known for his smooth patois influenced delivery in a voice reminiscent of notable music legends, Burna Boy has consistently wowed fans with his original and unpredictable style and energetic performances. It’s all a far cry from when he was yet to attain global fame and his Coachella billing apparently displeased him.īurna Boy is an afro fusion singer and songwriter. It has been a standout year for Burna Boy, (real name Damini Ogulu) who has won a string of awards and sold out venues across the globe. He follows in the footsteps of Femi and Seun Kuti, (the sons of legendary musician, Fela Kuti) King Sunny Ade and other Nigerian music stars. His 19 track album, ‘African Giant,’ was nominated alongside music heavyweights including Angelique Kidjo and Altin Gun. Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, better known by his stage name Burna Boy, born July 2, 1991, an ward-winning Nigerian singer, Burna Boy has topped off a stellar music year with a Grammy nomination and cemented his place as this year’s breakaway music star.
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