MY MUSIC IS AFROFUSION, NOT AFROBEATS - BURNA BOY

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By Sumayyah Olapade

Superstar singer, Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has said that his style of music is called Afrofusion and, therefore, cannot be labelled as Afrobeats.

The Last Last singer asserted that not all African music styles should be classified as Afrobeats and that the region produced a variety of sounds.

This claim was made by Burna Boy during an interview with the Million Dollar Worth of Game podcast hosts, which was broadcast on Sunday.

Burna Boy believes that labeling every music as “Afrobeats” is unjust to African musicians.

According to him, it would be similar to saying that Nas is an R&B singer because he is American or Whitney Houston was a rapper since rap is currently the most popular genre.

I can’t accept it since I’m not a rapper, he continued. Afrobeats are now the first genre mentioned when discussing music in Africa.

Burna Boy continued, “Fela Kuti is a legend in the world of Afrobeat. As the years passed, Nigerian musicians began releasing music that caught on. So they needed a name for it so they could recognize it.

“They simply appended a s after saying afrobeats. That happened, and I’m not sure what sense that made. All of the music that originates from Africa today is simply referred to as Afrobeats.

To be quite honest, calling everything Afrobeats kind of does the artists a disservice.

“When I first launched the Afrofusion movement, I felt that my music was different from everything else that was already there. It seemed like everyone else spoke in a similar manner.

He remarked, “It was one kind of move, and for me, there was nothing I could identify myself with. I needed something I could identify myself with. Due to the fact that it is a fusion of everything, I have merely decided to call it Afrofusion. It is covered with something that is afro-african.

“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.”