Fans of popular afrobeat singer, Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy, have expressed their disappointment with the singer's recent comments about afrobeats music in Nigeria and Africa.
GistReel reported that the Grammy award-winning artiste described Afrobeats as ‘nothing’, claiming that it lacks substance. According to the singer, around 90 percent of Afrobeats songs lack real-life experiences and only depict an idealized version of life that doesn't reflect its complexities.
During an interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music, Burna Boy stated that most Nigerian songs lack substance and depth. He mentioned, “You hear most Nigerian songs, or I’ll say African (songs)... I don’t even know what to say; Afrobeats, as people call it, is mostly about nothing."
He continued, “There is no substance to it. Nobody is talking about anything. It’s just an amazing time; but, at the end of the day, life is not an amazing time. No matter how nice of a time one is having now or had at some point, one is still going to face life. I feel music should (carry) the essence of the artiste. The artist is a person, who has good, bad and great days.”
However, his comments faced criticism from many who felt that Burna Boy was being overly critical of Nigerian music and artists. Fans and social media users highlighted that life experiences vary and that music can take different forms and appeals to diverse audiences.
However, his comments did not go down well with many who felt the singer was fond of speaking ill about Nigerians and their music.
A fan, Ochogwu Otobo, wrote on Facebook, “Pride goes before a fall. I won’t be surprised if I look around tomorrow and I can’t find Burna Boy.”
Lummy Hussy wrote, “Dear Burna Boy, what life is to you is not (what it is) to someone else. You cannot use your life to caption (sic) all other artistes. Life experiences differ and are relative.”
Another Facebook user, Oseni Okpanachi, wrote, “If you take music out of these artistes, what you will see is ignorance without dimension. The so called music they even make and brag about is nothing to write home about.”
An Instagram user, Khennyyappy wrote, “Typical Nigerian…rise to stardom and throw your people under the bus.”
Coded Pictures wrote, “Somebody should tell Burna that music has no rules. It is an art…very baseless argument.”
K Pumping wrote, “You don’t have to pull people down just because you feel you are great.”
OG Whyteish wrote, “I do not care about the whole interview, this dude just threw his whole nation under the bus, just so he could sound intelligent…”
Demo Uk wrote, “Which substance does his biggest song, ‘Ye’ have? Music is art. It can come in any form and appeal to different audiences.”
Some artistes like Daniel Benson, popularly known as BNXN buttressed Burna Boy’s statement during an Instagram live session, saying that Burna Boy was on point, stressing that only a few of them (artistes) make music with “proper substance.”
He said, “You see why I connect so much with Burna, is because he is so different.
“When I listened to him and I listened to anyone else, you can just tell that he is doing his own thing. Same thing when you listen to me. Except you want to be whining yourself sha. What we are doing here, you can’t get it anywhere else. I promise you.
“It’s only a few of us (artistes) that are real and doing this music thing with proper substance and having something to say in it.
“The other day, I was watching the Burna interview and I was wondering why everybody got him so misinterpreted. What you don’t understand will always confuse. So, it’s okay.
“Personally, I didn’t have a problem with what he said o. The only issue there is that he failed to say he is also part of what we do ‘afrobeats’.”