Nigerian singer, Burna Boy has issued an apology for his past remarks distancing himself from the Afrobeats genre.
Gatekeepers News reports that in July 2022, the Nigerian singer caused a stir when he stated that he did not consider his music to be Afrobeats, preferring instead to describe his style as Afrofusion.
However, during a recent appearance on The Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show, Burna Boy admitted that his earlier stance came from a misunderstanding of the importance of a unified genre identity for African music.
He said, “I said I don’t do Afrobeats in the interview because I don’t understand why everyone wanted my music to be in a particular box forcefully.”
“From 2010, I have been saying Afrofusion is what I make, where I mix elements with the African base.”
“So, if you try to put me under Afrobeats, it’s like you’re now comparing Socrates to Kendrick Lamar because they both said two things that rhyme, so they both must be rappers.”
“At the time, I didn’t understand that we need an umbrella for the genre, for the music to get recognition like R&B and Hip-Hop. I didn’t come to terms with it until I started seeing the reactions and the division it was causing, so l got the point of the Afrobeats tag.”
Burna Boy admitted that he failed to grasp the value of the Afrobeats label as an umbrella term needed to elevate African music to global prominence, much like R&B and Hip-Hop benefited from cohesive branding.
He said, “If I had understood then, I would have gone about it differently. Why would I want to destroy what I’m building?”
“I didn’t realise the Afrobeats tag is needed to make it global because there wouldn’t be any
R&B, Hip-Hop, or any of these popular genres if their beginnings had a lot of separation. So now, I totally get it and apologise for the confusion.”
