He met up with the legendary trio, Angela Yee, DJ Envy and Charlamagne Tha God to discuss black power and his new album. The best thing about the interview is how comfortable Burna Boy felt during the chat - compared to how unsettled he was in his earlier days on American interview circuits.
During the conversation, Burna Boy revealed that he’s barely due to time differences. The best thing about the interview was when Burna Boy corrected DJ Envy’s allusion that he’s been stuck in “Africa.” Burn Boy said, “Lagos.”
Here are the top five things he said;
1) ‘Twice As Tall’ would have been titled, ‘African Giant Part II’
In May 2020, Burna Boy did a Q&A with his fans. During the conversations, he revealed that his new album would be titled, Twice As Tall - after the unsavory experiences at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
But during his chat with The Breakfast Club,he says, “To be honest, man I wanted to call it ‘African Giant Part II’ but ‘African Giant’ did so well, I didn’t want to put pressure on this one.”
2) Working with Diddy
When queried about how Diddy’s contributions and influence on the album, Burna Boy said, “He’s someone I’ve always looked up to, it’s a big blessing for me. It wasn’t the plan in the beginning [laughs], but then it just happened organically and it’s been perfect every step of the way, you know…”
He continues, “I just wanted this album to be a strong bridge to everywhere there is black people. I just felt Diddy would be the best person to bring that power... I didn’t expect him to put in all that work. I appreciate it, man.”
3) Why does Burna Boy advocate black power and Pan-Africanism
Burna Boy has always championed black power and Pan-Africanism. On that, he says, “It’s very important to me because I feel like most of us black people don’t understand the importance of us being together at a time like this and we tend to forget that our real power will come from the fact that the rest of the world sees this united black power.
“That’s the scariest thing western civilization and all that - the power of black unity. If that can be achieved, the world would be black [laughs].”
On what he perceives to be ‘blackness,’ he says, “Blackness has nothing to do with where you’re from and where you’ve been. At this point, blackness is the togetherness and the fact that we all share the same struggles… The minute we understand that is the minute we come together to win this struggle. We can’t win this struggle without a base… [Blackness] belongs to you as it belongs to us…”
Burna Boy did smartly evade questions as regards whether or not Beyonce was appropriating African culture or not. Burna Boy did let it slip that Beyonce was not bridging the gap pf blackness like he would want before he said, "I don't think I should be commenting on that..."
4) COVID-19 aided the making of ‘Twice As Tall’
Burna Boy had spoken about how he made ‘Monsters You Made’ with Chris Martin during COVID-19. Word on the street is that Coldplaywas actually the dream collaboration from a strategy point of view, but only Chris Martincould be had. The self-acclaimed African Giant has credited the lack of mobility from COVID-19 with aiding the creation of Twice As Tall.
He says that he didn’t have anywhere to go or anything to do, so he focused on the album. He also says that he hasn’t been in the same place for more than two weeks over the past three years. He calls himself, “A Traveller.”
5) The first song Burna Boy ever learned was a ‘Hip-Hop Hurray’ by Naughty By Nature
When asked about featuring the American trio of Naughty By Nature on his new album, Twice As Tall, Burna Boy says that, “Oh man, People might not know this, but the first song I learned how to sing word for word in my whole life - I must have been three years old at the time - was [Hip-Hop Hurray’ by Naughty By Nature]... I would be jumping on tables, singing it...”
However, Burna Boy denies that that such collaboration is him trying to break out of the Afrobeats genre. He says, “I don’t like putting myself in a box or restricting myself musically. It’s also about fulfilling childhood dreams…”
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