"AfroBeats As People Call It Is Mostly About Nothing, No Substance To It," Burna Boy

In a recent interview with Apple, Burna Boy made a statement about AfroBeat that prompted a lot of contemplation to some of the people who did not understand it. He remarked, "AfroBeats as people call it, is mostly about nothing, literally nothing. there’s no substance to it — like, nobody is talking about anything in it. it’s just a great time.”

Burna Boy speaks on AfroBeats as a genre
“… AfroBeats as people call it, is mostly about nothing, literally nothing. there’s no substance to it — like, nobody is talking about anything in it. it’s just a great time.” pic.twitter.com/rfzOtCaZZY

— benny. (@benny7gg) August 22, 2023

This statement from Burna Boy stirred some discontent among a portion of Nigerians who began drawing comparisons between his interviews and those of other Nigerian artists like Davido and Wizkid. They argued that artists like Davido and Wizkid promote love and incorporate more meaningful elements into AfroBeat, while suggesting that Burna Boy may be perceived as pushing Afrobeat in a different direction that could potentially overshadow the efforts of other Nigerian artists to gain recognition for their songs and projects.

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Burna Boy is always out there bring Afrobeat back and spoiling work for other Nigerian artistes just for his songs and project to boom. We see Wizkid and Davido when they do interviews and see them promote love and Afrobeat generally but not Burna. At least if you don’t have good…

— $ilva 💸 (@TheSilvapr) August 23, 2023