Before Burna Boy would become a global sensation
Before Rihanna would vibe to one of Burna Boy’s songs on Instagram live:
Before his song “Ye” would become a global hit and get spun in America from Skrillex,
DJ Snake and Mustard. The song has more than 38 million views on YouTube
Before he would collab with YG, Fall Out Boy, Future, Diplo, Skrillex, Jorja Smith and oh
yeah… Beyonce
Before he would perform at Coachella
But Burna Boy wasn’t happy with his placement on the festival flier
Before He would win the award for Best International Act at the 2019 BET awards. His mother accepted
the award and gave a moving speech for him:
He was in the building but he just stepped out for a drink right before he won…
Before Burna Boy would have more than 1.8 million followers on Twitter and more than
4 million followers on Instagram
Burna Boy is one of the biggest global stars with his unique blend of genres, sounds and
uncanny ability to create melodies that resonate with people around the world. And if you’re
still not up on Burna Boy, then you should probably get familiar. Although, he doesn’t
really care too much about if you know his music or not. He said:
It’s not about me being heard in America. It’s about the world knowing more about
a people, a culture, a civilization, a very, very old one. The oldest one.
It’s something that is bigger than me.
But whether he cares about it or not, the crossover has already happened. He’s worked
with Future, YG and even Beyonce. The sky is the limit. But before all of this, Burna
was just a kid making beats on a bootleg version of Fruity Loops for his classmates. This is
the story of Burna Boy.
What’s going on good people in the comment section? I hope you’re having one Hecht
of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht, and today I’ll be your host taking you through the
life and career of Burna Boy prior to fame. If you’re new here, I’m the LA host for
this channel and if you’re familiar then shoutout to my toilet gang! Basically just
anyone who’s watching on the toilet right now. I’ve recently covered other artists
for the show including Playboi Carti and Stunna 4 Vegas recently so let me know who we should
cover next in the comments down below. But before we start, I’ve got a trivia question
for you:
Where is the one place in the world that Burna Boy feels completely at peace?
Alright, now let’s get into the show:
Instead of my trying to pronounce his, I’m going to let Burna Boy say it himself:
Burna Boy was born on July 2, 1991 in Garden City, Port
Harcourt, Nigeria. He told The Breakfast Club that it’s the soutside of Nigeria and is
an oil city. He attended Montessori International School for his primary education. On his upbringing,
he says. Growing up, music was always surrounding him
with both of his parents playing music in the house. His dad would play Super Cat and
Ninja Man along with vinyl records every single Sunday. He told Fader back in 2015:
He doesn’t even know it but he influenced reggae into me. The first reggae song I heard
was in his car.
I remember he bought a V Boot—a Mercedes, old school—and it was one of the first cars
that could play CDs at the time.
The first CD we had was a mix of all different types of dancehall.
While his mom played Anita Baker. His Uncle, who was younger, introduced him to Naughty
By Nature.
Plus, his grandfather managed Fela Kuti, who was a Nigerian musician that many people call
the pioneer of Afrobeat music. So safe to say, he was also a massive influence on a
young Burna.
He also opened his ears to rock bands, singers and musicians of all types. Burna and his
mother are extremely close, and his mother actually became his manager later on. But
before that, he said that she was his best friend.
Probably everytime she takes that ten percent! I’m just kidding, But speaking of ten, when
Burna was 10 years old, the girl he liked gave him a Joe CD for his birthday, which
got him into R&B.
When he was younger, before he really started taking music seriously, he was in love with
football. Again, that’s not American football, that’s European football! He played goalkeeper
but at some point he didn’t feel needed by the team so he quit.
I was actually a goaltender myself but in hockey. And it’s one of the most isolating
positions in any sport because you don’t talk to anyone all game and if you mess up,
the loss is on you. But most of the time when you win, you don’t get the credit either.
Needless to say, it strengthens you mentally.
So after Burna gave up on the football dream, he took up music. But at first he actually
wanted to be a rapper. His early rap influences were DMX, Busta Rhymes and Big Pun. In terms
of his rap name, well it was actually his super hero name first:
Burna would make beats off of Fruity Loops 3 when he was just ten years old after one
of his classmates gave him a copy of the program. He would also freestyle for his friends at
school and they all told him it was good. He would even use video games to sample for
some of his early songs.
He was a huge gamer growing up. He’s got everything from PS1 and SEGA to Supernintendo.
Question for you guys watching at home, what’s the greatest video game system of all time?
I’ve got Nintendo 64 up there but what you do have at number 1?
For secondary school, Burna went to Corona, Agbara. But everything changed when he moved
to the UK. It was in the UK that Burna Boy first felt like he could be completely himself.
He continued his studies in the UK, but that’s when he found his true love of music. And
by studies, I mean hanging out and making songs, because I guess he didn’t really
study anything other than music.
Technically he WAS registered to the school but he quickly dropped out and moved back
to Nigeria from London after two years.
This was in December of 2010 and that’s also when he began to really pursue his dream
heavily. The first tattoo that Burna Boy got was a psalm that helped him out of a dark
place:
Burna moved to the southern coast of Nigeria, after one of his acquaintances named LeriQ
had some studio space that he could use. It was in Nigeria that Burna found his sound.
And like he says, truth always has a way of circling back. Prior to this time period,
he was more interested in making American music based on his early influences.
But Burna started to listen to reggae, afro-beat, dancehall and found a blend that he now refers
to as Afrofusion.
Afro-fusion, which he told Interview magazine is
basically like a pizza. With Afrobeat as the base—the dough—and everything else,
the pepperoni and all that, that’s the reggae, the dancehall, the R&B and hip-hop.
Burna Boy got signed in 2010 to a record label that was just starting up called Aristokrat
Records. He started dropping singles with his new sound that found him some local buzz.
He told Fader that he was somewhat like a local star in the underground. In June of
2012, his song “Like To Party” started gaining some real buzz in Lagos and made waves
in the local music scene. The song was produced by LeriQ. Prior to that, he was just making
music for himself:
Burna Boy kept music and growing his fan base, dropping his debut album “L.I.F.E.” The
album opened up a lot of doors for him and received rave reviews. And it sold 50k copies
in its first week. In 2014, it was the first time he realized that he had really made it:
It was probably around the time that he was on a
boat thing with some girl:
He saw Trevor Noah and the girl with him wanted to go take a picture with him. You hate to
see it!
Burna kept dropping music with his 2015 album “On a Spaceship.” But after that, he parted
ways with his record company and longtime musical partner LeriQ.
He dropped his 2016 “Redemption” project and also began collaborating with some of
music’s biggest names from Lilly Allen to Fall Out Boy. His third album “Outside”
dropped in 2017 and he continued to build. But what many people watching this from America
don’t realize is that before all of the features, Burna Boy was an absolutely massive
star. I mean, the dude is set to play Wembley Stadium which holds 12,500 people. You don’t
get to play that venu if you’re an overnight success.
Around that time, he would also appear on the outro to Drake’s “More Life” track
“Get It Together.” But according to Burna, he wasn’t given any credit for the appearance.
Burna reportedly submitted 5 songs for the “playlist” and the one they decided to
use was actually called “More Life.” He said:
They told me they had picked it, but when the song came out it was… chopped
Doesn’t look good for Drake… But in terms of crossing over to America, Burna Boy told
the Fader:
I care about crossing over, but in the opposite way.
I want to come here and cross you over to where I am. You understand?
Because where I am is the actual home of the beginning.
But even though he doesn’t seek the approval of any American audience, he had a conversation
with his A&R, who wanted to prove that Burna could be loved in America just as much as
he was back home. The team did this through a lot of live shows around the country. Matthew
Adesuyan, Burna’s A&R told Rolling Stone:
Burna’s been doing this. Live performance is how people fell in love with him in Africa.
His collaboration with UK Artist Dave on the song “Location” peaked at Number 6 on
the UK charts. And shortly afterwards, Burna won best international act at the BET awards.
His next album “African Giant” ironically featured some of the biggest acts in America,
like YG, Jeremih, Future and Jorja Smith. He said
I don't plan stuff. I don't believe in planning. I just believe in doing
your best at what you do best at all times and everything else is everything else.
Everything else is a plus.
And for the new Lion King soundtrack, Burna got a call from Beyonce. Well technically
his mom got to talk to Beyonce first.
The only place that Burna Boy feels genuine peace, is
in Ghana. But as for the rest of the story, well we’ll
have to see, because this is Before They Were Famous. As always, I’m Jeremy Hecht.
OUTRO