“I Created Afro-fusion… I Am Not Fela,” – Burna Boy Says On American Radio

Forum 3 years ago

“I Created Afro-fusion… I Am Not Fela,” – Burna Boy Says On American Radio

On September 8, 2020, Nigerian Superstar Was Interviewed Via Virtual Means On Hot97 New York Show, ‘Ebro In The Morning.’ During The Show, Burna Boy Talked About His New Album, ‘Twice As Tall,’ Working With Diddy And More.

But one moment that really sticks out is was when Burna Boy was asked on why he deems his sound to be ‘Afro-fusion’ rather than ‘Afrobeats.’

He said,

“Afro-fusion is me, I created that. The same way Afrobeat is Fela Kuti – he created that, you know.

I don’t play every instrument… I’m not Fela, basically. I’m Burna Boy and we go about things very differently. It’s a different genre, it just comes from Africa basically.”

Burna Boy thinks using ‘Afrobeats’ as an umbrella term for African music is “not fair.” He further says, “It’s not fair to just join everybody… It’s almost like joining Hip-Hop, R&B and Dancehall into one thing and call it ‘Ameribeats.’ It doesn’t do justice to what’s really going on, but at the same time, we have to start from somewhere.”