-Nigeria in the house. -Yes, sir.
Welcome to the show, my friend.
(speaking foreign language)
-The, uh... -(cheering)
So many accolades have, uh, happened in your life
over the past year, year, 18 months, I would say.
Hold on. I don't want to cut you off.
I-I have to tell this one, yeah.
-Oh, here we go. -Just hold on.
This guy is like a legend.
'Cause I'm from Nigeria, and, like,
-I used to spend a lot of time in South Africa, right. -Right.
And this must have been 2014, right.
I went on this boat thing in Cape Town
with some girl, and...
(laughter)
Yeah. And then, we was going in
and then you must have been coming out
from some place, I don't know.
And then it's like a big crowd starts going,
"Trevor. Trevor."
(laughter)
You know? And then, the girl I'm with, she's like,
"That's Trevor Noah. Can I go take a--"
I'm like, "You stay put."
(laughter)
You know, so, after that,
immediately we got down from there.
I went back and I started watching the whole...
-oh, everything. -Oh, man, I appreciate that.
-And that's how I-- you know, so... -I appreciate that.
Most people would have been like,
"And that's when I started hating you."
-But, I mean, that's, uh... -No.
No, that's a pretty dope story.
-I'm-- thank you very much for that. -Yeah, yeah.
Thank you very much for that.
Let's-- But let's talk about that.
You know, you have spent time in South Africa,
but you've also spent time
-traveling around the world. -Yes.
You know, for those who don't know you,
they-they are definitely bound to know you.
Burna Boy's music has been blowing up.
BET's Best International Act.
-Congratulations on that. -Thank you.
-Uh... -(cheers and applause)
What do you think...
What do you think it is about Nigerian music
and African music in particular,
that it's blowing up all over the world right now?
Man, it's just the truth always just circles back, you know?
It's like things always circle back to where they started from.
You know, music as a whole started from Africa.
You know, so it's always gonna circle back home, you know?
You think it's just gonna come back around,
-the vibe, the rhythm, the beat? -Yeah. It's like,
it might leave again but it's always gonna circle back home
because, like, when everything else fails,
-everybody runs back home. -(laughs)
-Everyone, uh... -(applause)
Everyone started sampling the sound, as well.
-Yeah. -You know, you've got...
you've got Drake who sampled the sound.
-You know, you've got... -Drake!
(laughter)
You've got so many huge artists who've sampled the sound,
and now because of that, like, when you hear songs in the club,
you hear, like, Nigerian music. You hear African music.
I've been fascinated by how it's not even, like, called...
-It's just music, which it is. -Yeah.
You-you have a specific title for it, though.
-You call it Afrofusion. -Yeah.
What does that mean? What does Afrofusion mean
-for your music? -Okay, so, basically, it's like a pizza.
-Right? -(laughter)
Hold on. I'm serious.
(laughter)
-So, it's like a pizza, right? -Okay.
And then imagine a pizza.
It's like, what's the main thing in the pizza
that every pizza needs? It's the flour.
Right. Okay, the dough. Okay, okay.
-The dough. There you go, yeah. -The dough. The base. All right.
-Cool. Cool. Yes. -Okay, so, yeah.
-So, Afrobeat is the base, right? -Okay.
And then now you can have any pizza you want,
but you have the Afrobeat base.
-So you could... -You know, so there's-there's the hip-hop.
-Pepperoni. There's the... -Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.
-I'm like, "Hip-hop pepperoni?" -There's the dancehall...
-That's actually a good flavor. -The dance... Yeah, yeah.
-There's the dancehall ham. -Right.
There's the... You know? All types of, you know...
So I just kind of make a nice pizza
-every song. -Oh, I like that.
-So, Burna Boy just throws in, like, an Afro-pizza. -Yeah.
You-you need to trademark that. "Hip-hop pepperoni."
You could make a lot of money from...
"Hey, let me get one hip-hop pepperoni over there!"
Yeah. And then, like, what it should be
is, like, a pepperoni that's really hot,
and then, like, when people eat it, then they start rapping.
Just like... (rapping indistinctly)
(laughter)
-(cheering and applause) -That would be...
That would make you a lot of money.
Um, you are one of the artists
who is featured on the Lion King soundtrack...
-Yeah. -...with Beyoncé.
(cheering and applause)
You are... you are also one of the few African artists
who got to perform at Coachella, and that-that's interesting
because that's what inspired the name of this album,
-African Giant. -Yeah, yeah.
Tell-tell me how that... how that came about.
Yeah, so, basically, I'm on the toilet seat...
(laughter)
I love how every single one of your stories
-starts with where you are. I love this. -Yeah.
-It's like, you have to be specific, man. -Yeah.
"I was on a boat." "I was on a toilet seat."
-"I was..." Yes. -I always remember, you know?
So, basically, I'm on the toilet seat,
and then my mom calls me.
And then she's like, "Yeah, um, you're doing Coachella."
And blah-blah-blah. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that's-that's nice."
So, I get off,
and then I, you know, go on the Gram.
-Right. -(laughs)
And then I see the thing, and then it's like, my name.
I've seen all the names, and I'm looking for my name,
-and I can't find my name. -Right.
I literally can't find my name, right?
So I'm like, "Am I really performing here?"
-"Is my mom playing a prank on me?" -Yeah. You know?
What's going on? And then she's like, "No, it's there."
And then they circled-- they had to circle it for me.
-Oh, 'cause, like, the names get smaller on the poster. -Yes!
-Yes. Yes. Yeah. -Yeah, it'll be like, "Beyoncé!
-Eminem!" (descending tone) -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-(laughing) -Yeah.
-(applause) -So then it was, "Burna Boy."
-Exactly. -So then what happened?
So, basically, that's never happened to me before.
-You know, I'm used to being the African Giant, you know? -Right.
-So... -Because you're huge.
This is, like, something I think people don't understand,
is how big Burna Boy is.
It's just like-- You know, like, depending
on where you watch news from, before-before--
depending on where you get your perspective,
you go, like, "Oh, I don't know."
But you are huge, you know what I mean?
You're huge in a country with one of the largest populations,
on a continent with one of the largest populations,
you know what I mean? All around the world.
And then they put, like, this.
-You know? -Right.
So I'm not used to that.
So I'm like, "Okay,
what's this? I don't like this. No."
(laughing)
So, basically, I-I told them,
I expressed myself, basically-- and not just for that--
for the fact that everyone else that's coming after me
-is, like-- shouldn't have to go through that. -Right.
They should-- It's like it should be the same way.
Like, let's say the Latin artists
-and all the other international people that was there. -Right.
-You know what I mean? -Yeah, they have started billing,
-like, J Balvin will have a bigger font. -Exac-Exactly.
-Yes. Yeah, yeah. -Exactly. So I'm thinking,
-I mean, it's only right, you know? -Right.
-So, yeah. -Right. That one of the biggest artists in Africa
-would get one of the biggest fonts on the page. -Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah. -I like that. I feel like-- -(applause)
-I feel like-- Yeah. -(cheering)
I, uh...
I'm not gonna lie. I feel like that was the Nigerian in you
-kicking in. -(laughs)
No, 'cause Nigerians do not--
Like, Nigerians and humility don't mix.
Like, Nigerians are like--
Nigerians are like, "We kick ass."
You're the coolest Africans on the continent.
And, like, I can just see a Nigerian looking, like,
"Is this my name, huh? Huh? Is...
-"Did you run out of ink? -That's-that's...
"Did you run out of ink when you wrote my name, huh?
Eh?" (laughs)
I can just picture that.
Um, all right, so, um,
you know, you're-you're performing live everywhere.
People love your music. You're gonna be performing
-for us today. Uh, what's the song? -(cheering and applause)
-What can we look forward to? -Sorry?
What's the song that you're gonna perform for us today?
So, I'm gonna do, like, a little medley.
I'm gonna, like, bring one of the-- my songs
-from my other album, my last album, Outside, -Right. Uh-huh.
-called "Ye," and I'm gonna fuse it -Yeah.
with one of my songs from this album
-called "Anybody." -This is dope.
So, basically, what you're gonna do after the break is
you're gonna make us one of those pizzas
where we have all the toppings
-at the same time. -(cheering and applause)
African Giant is available now.