Why My Music Should Not Be Called Afrobeats – Burna Boy

Nigerian singer, Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has criticised those who refer to all songs churned out by Africans as Afrobeats.

He noted that his style is Afrofusion, insisting that it will be ingenuous to refer to all African songs as Afrobeats.

He stated this in an interview with the hosts of the Million Dollar Worth of Game podcast, which was aired on Sunday.

“For me, it’s like the same way you’re going to say Nas is an R&B singer because he’s from America or Whitney Houston was a rapper because rap is the most popping thing now,” he said.

He added, “I can’t accept that because I’m not a rapper. So now in Africa when you talk about music, the first thing they say is Afrobeats.”

In his further explanation, Burna Boy said, “Afrobeat is a legend called Fela Kuti. Years went by and Nigerian musicians started dropping music that was becoming something. So they needed to call it something to be able to identify with it.

“Somehow they just said Afrobeats and added an s. I don’t know what sense that made but that’s what happened. Somewhere along the line, all the music that comes from Africa just writes Afrobeats.

“To be really sincere, for you to just call everything Afrobeats kind of does a disservice to the artistes.

“For me, when I started the Afrofusion thing, it was like my music was not the same with anything that was out. It was like everybody else kind of sounded the same.”

Revealing how he wanted something he could identify himself with, he said, “It was one kind of move and for me, there was nothing I could identify myself with. So I just decided that I’ll call it Afrofusion because it’s a fusion of everything. The Afro-Africaness is the thing that covers it.

“It’s the bottle that holds the whole drink. That is why I always make sure that everybody knows this is what I do, it’s Afrofusion.”