The Grammy-award-winning Nigerian singer, Damini Ogulu, popularly known asBurna Boy, has explained why the afrobeats genre lacks lyrical substance, noting that nobody is talking about anything in it.
The talented singer said the genre is “literally nothing.”
The self-styled ‘African Giant’ disclosed this in a recent interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in New York.
He said, “90 per cent of them [Nigerian musicians] have no real life experiences which is why most of Nigerian music or African music or afrobeats as people call it, is mostly about nothing, literally nothing.
“There is no substance to it — like, nobody is talking about anything in it. it is just a great time. It’s an amazing time. But at the end of the day, life is not an amazing time. No matter how nice of a time you are having now or you had at some point or you plan to have, you are still going to face life.
“So, for me, I feel like music should be the essence of the artiste. The artiste is a person who has good day, bad day, his great days and worst days. So, I’m dropping a project that should be a window for the fans to see those experiences.”
Burna Boy has reiterated that his genre of music is not afrobeats but afrofusion which he said is a fusion of afrobeat, hip-hop, reggae, R&B, and dancehall.