Ondopress
Nigerian Grammy award winner, Burna Boy, has apologised for downgrading Afrobeats and distancing himself from the genre.
Ondopress recalls that Burna Boy sparked controversy in 2023 after saying Afrobeats has no lyrical substance and disassociated himself from the genre.
However, in a recent interview with BBCβs Eddie Kadi, Burna Boy explained that he didnβt realise back then that African artists need Afrobeats as an umbrella genre to thrive.
According to him, he chose to call his style Afrofusion because he didnβt think he could fit into Afrobeats category in the early days of his career.
The βLast Lastβ crooner stated that he has now realised that African artists have to be united and not divided along genres, to push the continentβs music forward.
He apologised for his controversial remark, claiming he was in a βdark place mentallyβ when he made the statement.
He said, βI didnβt understand why people wanted my music to be inside one box. The way I saw it, if you just put everything into Afrobeats, youβre now comparing Socrates to Kendrick Lamar because they both said two things that rhyme so they both must be rappersβ¦
βI didnβt realise we needed Afrobeats tag as an umbrella to go to anywhere. I totally get it now and I apologise for that confusion.β