here comes the AFRICAN GIANT / Burna Boy (2019)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

<3 whoever voted for Blak Ryno

Those are not the results I saw in my dream last night! There every song had received at least one vote, though I can’t tell you who came out on top. Voted for “Killin Dem” in the end myself.

Now treat yourselves to the Wizkid EP perhaps? It has Kel-P, and guitars!

More Burna, more Kel-P, plus de... Dadju:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwEyHYGIO80
“Donne moi l’accord”

I wasn’t aware of this afrobeat track, from Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack that came out last month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGcQOyNqmyQ
Burna Boy • My Money, My Baby

But in somewhat bigger news: a brand new single for Christmas with a distinctly different sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFHekqPaI
Burna Boy • Money Play

dig all three of these.

Video #10 is for “Secret”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZcmBH7PnSM

Dedicating it to longneck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGL1JoC2IaQ
👌🏼

^^^ oh hey i coengine33red this song! recorded b3urna's ho3ok a cpl months ago. happy to see it released so soon

This song is apparently a month old but I only heard it today. It's an absolute banger.

Nappy & Burna Boy - Aye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCXjRUasA48

that's awesome, esby, good work!

xp

love the nappy track. such a bop - burna can do no wrong rn

Hardly any discussion here about the “Money Play” single Burna dropped last Xmas. It has definitely grown on me, but it still feels like a bit of a hiccup in his imperial phase.

Anyway, I made a pseudo-pan-African-pop/not-pop playlist for the rolling afro 2020 thread and all Afro-adjacent threads, generously defined. It’s already 108 tracks deep, so enjoy!

ILM rolling✳️all-inclusive✳️afro 2020

Follow-up question to two posts above: and what about this brand new one? Back with Kel-P, but look ma, no horns!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onQmiURQCyU
Burna Boy • Odogwu

not really feeling this one too much, it's a bit too low-key and repetitive

It’s definitely looking like he wants to make a clean break with that trademark Kel-P sound. Maybe he feels it’s time for something new now that Wizkid has adopted it for his SoundMan project?

Check the Rolling Afro thread for more Kel-P vibes!

money play is great odugwu is filler

I think I agree. Money Play sounds awesome in the mix. Odugwu sounds alright, but might grow on me.

I really love the bass and drums on Odogwu, though I can see wanting it to be a more dramatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R4Ps2NHLDw

^^2Baba ft. Burna Boy • We Must Groove

(from the new 2Baba album)

<3

BURNA BOY ON A HOT PINK DOCK IN NIGERIA WEARING YOHJI WOW pic.twitter.com/wGompEWUHQ

— rachel seville tashjian (@theprophetpizza) March 4, 2020

Video for "Odogwu":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUliAM1ByDk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYBWrQumfVg

first single from new album Twice As Tall out 'this summer' !!!

“Wonderful” is no lie. I love love this new sound. His voice sounds great, the beat and the production are fantastic, the guitar flourishes are ace. I wasn’t aware of producer Telz, but I see he also did a track on prettyboydo’s excellent new EP.

With hindsight, Burna has guided us into this new era expertly with those two palate cleansing singles in December and February. He could have easily stuck with that modern-classic Kel-P sound, but I approve of this development.

Great song and super exciting news!

Yeah I'll be curious--maybe a little surprised--to see if Odogwu and Money Play aren't included on this. It would definitely be impressive to have three really distinct albums out in just a few years

video for “Wonderful”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k33o1IgtUEM

You’re all invited to participate in this poll:

🇳🇬 NAIJA SPECIAL: which of these *seven* current high-profile Nigerian hit songs is the best one? please help me decide

#TWICEASTALL 14/08 🦍 pic.twitter.com/YOMdN1s2xL

— Burna Boy (@burnaboy) August 5, 2020

Yesssss

im ready

twice as tall tracklist was revealed:
Level Up (Twice as Tall) [ft. Youssou N’Dour]
Alarm Clock
Way Too Big
Bebo
Wonderful
Onyeka (Baby)
Naughty By Nature [ft. Naughty By Nature]
Comma
No Fit Vex
23
Time Flies [ft. Sauti Sol]
Monsters You Made [ft. Chris Martin]
Wetin Dey Sup
Real Life [ft. Stormzy]
Bank on It

looking forward to the sauti sol collab but not at all excited to hear chris martin's appearance

jae5 has also contributed to the production!

the YG and future songs from the lsat album ended up being pretty dope considering so i'm willing to give him some rope... "monsters you made" not rly a promising title tho lol

jae5 has also contributed to the production!

*heart eyes*

Monsters You Made (ft. Chris Martin)

great, a hook about Goop

It shoulda been Christopher Martin smh.

I'm kind of surprised neither Money Play nor Odogwu are on this. I wonder if the Naughty by Nature one will be like the Blak Ryno one on AG.

Other producers: LeriQ, Telz, P2J, Rexxie, Mike Dean, Timbaland, Skread, DJDS

as for the Chris Martin collab: you are all aware Burna’s on Sam Smith’s current single, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byO74UGa8bI

#mainstreamingburna

I meant to ask if anyone has heard that yet...I have not

good to see he’s working with LeriQ again, the guy who produced his early stuff.

and Timbaland - seems like a trophy collaborator, like Youssou N’Dour perhaps, but who knows...

xp

I quite liked it but ymmv

tbh I can't even remember what Smith sounds like so I'm not sure why I'm avoiding it

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/arts/music/burna-boy-twice-as-tall.html

Interview / feature

solid piece. more production details:

For “Twice as Tall,” Burna Boy enlisted an American executive producer: Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, who has long guided rappers and singers (most famously the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige) toward wider audiences.

Combs also makes his presence audible with voice-over intros on some songs, briefly upstaging Burna Boy.

I like this description of Burna’s artistry or whatever the word is (although I must admit I can’t attest to the pentatonic African modes):

For the most part, Burna Boy hasn’t diluted his African heritage to reach his global audience. Instead, he has placed an unmistakably African stamp on music drawn from all around Africa and from across the African diaspora. He has a calm, husky, resolute voice that exemplifies the West African cultural virtue of coolness: poise and control transcending any commotion. His melodic sense is rooted in pentatonic African modes but unconstrained by them, and he has a stable of producers who deliver some of the most innovative rhythm tracks in 21st-century pop — usually working alongside Burna Boy in his studio, he said. He sings, most often, in a pidgin of English and Yoruba, confident that his meaning will get through even if listeners don’t recognize all the words.

Burna Boy is a leader amid a bounty of new African pop that has been increasingly welcomed in the West: a confluence of widespread availability via streaming, discovery via word-of-internet rather than former gatekeepers, and the sheer inventiveness taking place outside established music-business strongholds.

can confirm the album is on my streaming service of choice

so far "way too big" rules so much

unsurprisingly chris martin is an extremely unwelcome presence here

oh ok that makes sense. He’s bigger than j cole in my mind but that’s probably empirically wrong

caught his concert last night, the show is incredible. live version of “anybody” blew the roof off the place

he is awesome live

recorded version of “it’s plenty” was a bit too cheesy to me but a stadium full of people singing along and going nuts to it while Burna boy is jumping up and down with the worlds widest grin on his face with confetti cannons and fireworks going off behind him really warmed me on it

The new album is pretty good! I even listened all the way through the one with Mick Jagger (my defenses might have been weakened by Slow Horses).

At this point — that point being: no longer expecting another African Giant — I've grown fond of some of his weak spots: the white rock star features, super obvious interpolations/samples, Wu Tang nostalgia, the occasional yuck sex metaphor

I should list the album's good points too lol, but I'll have to re-listen to pick highlights. Overall I'd say it sounds like he's relaxed into a really consistent and pleasurable groove

the jagger song would be really great if it weren’t for the grafted on jagger bits

The Jagger bits do seem too grafted on. There are some good cuts here as Rob noted.

the mick jagger feature was significantly more baffling than i expected it to be

like that was just an old unreleased solo track jagger had lying around and gave to burna boy to splice onto a totally unrelated song, right?

yes definitely, which is really too bad because burna boy’s part is well written. should’ve just done a normal hook

I wonder why the CD version doesn't have the Mick Jagger song

A woman who was ordered out of Burna Boy's Denver concert for falling asleep in the front row has spoken publicly about the incident, revealing she was emotionally exhausted and grieving the recent death of her child's father. The Nigerian superstar paused his performance after spotting the woman, telling the couple to leave before he continued the show. The moment went viral, reigniting conversation around concert etiquette, artist accountability and how performers respond to fans during live events

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/other/burna-boy-kicked-a-woman-out-of-his-concert-for-sleeping-but-she-says-she-was-grieving-her-partners-death/ar-AA1QBrT9?apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1

The whole US tour cancelled now. Some say it was actually overly expensive ticket prices as much as a backlash to his behavior in kicking out the sleeping woman