Burna Boy besökte nyligen Sverige för en spelning på Big Slap-festivalen i Malmö. Under sommaren har den afrikanska giganten bjudit på flera singlar som leder fram till det nya albumet “I Told Them…” – som följs av en omfattande Nordamerika-turné i höst.

I början av veckan avslöjade Burna Boy även låtlistan och gäster för det nya albumet som släpps denna fredag. På skivan noterar vi bland annat gästinhopp av Dreamville-giganten J. Cole och den brittiske rapparen Dave. Se låtlistan nedan!

I samband med albumreleasen gjorde Burna Boy en uppmärksammad intervju med Zane Lowe på Apple Music i början av veckan. Under intervjun gjorde han kontroversiella uttalanden om afrobeats-genren där han ställde sig kritisk till artistkollegor och utvecklingen som varit senaste åren:

“90% of them, have almost no real-life experiences that they can understand, which is why you hear most of Nigerian music, or I’ll say African… I don’t even know what to say, Afrobeats, as people call it, it’s mostly about nothing, literally nothing. There’s no substance to it.”

Burna Boy fortsatte:

“Nobody’s talking about anything. It’s 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’re having now or you had at some point or you plan to have, you’re still going to face life. So it’s like, for me, I feel like music should be that, music should be the essence of the artist, you understand? The artist is a person, like me speaking for myself, the artist is a person who has good days, bad days, great days, and worst days. And for me, if I give you something like this with my face on it, and my name, then I should be giving you that experience. That should be a window for you to see some of that essence.”

Burna Boy har även ha uttalat sig om den afrikanska diasporan och att många amerikaner inte är i kontakt med sin rötter och kultur. I det fallet menar Burna Boy att han blivit felciterad och uttalar sig i en intervju med Complex:

“Everyone has their own agendas. Show me the part where I said [that]. That’s all I need. If someone can just show me that part… There’s nothing I said that Malcolm X didn’t say. There’s nothing I said that the honorable Louis Farrakhan didn’t say, you know what I mean?”

“But obviously, it’s Burna Boy saying it and he’s from Africa… It fits the agenda for your little group or whatever. All that’s beneath me. My mission and my movements is too divine for stupid shit like that. That shit is always gonna come… People are really, really dumb.”

Foto: Atlantic Records / Emmanuel Agbeble