Burna Boy on his career : unlike others I’ve had to go through never ending stairs to get here
Burna Boy in a recent interview said, “I’ve had to go through never ending stairs to get here, where as other people have taken the elevator.”
He added:
“I’ve always been too heavy for that kind of elevator, so I had to take the stairs.
Now I know every floor and everything on every floor.”
Burna Boy featured in the popular GQ Magazine where he spoke about his music career, being compared to Fela, and his views about ranking and numbers.
The African giant told GQ that he has made peace with many outside Nigeria not grasping the totality of his art, because he sings with pidgin.
He said he’d actually prefers the response to his work be rooted in something deeper than streams, sales, and fluctuating chart positions.
“I don’t really have a high regard for numbers, because numbers have no feelings, they have no soul, whereas I do,”
he explains.
“My ‘numbers’ is the people who have actually felt the feeling that the music is supposed to carry across and in the process received the message.”
When asked about being compared to Fela, Burna Boy says: “I don’t think anybody in their right mind would compare me to Fela.”
He added:
“Fela is my inspiration and my childhood hero, so if you think comparing me to Fela is honorable, it’s actually not.
It actually makes me feel weird.
Fela was Fela, and if it wasn’t for Fela, there probably wouldn’t be any me, so I don’t understand the comparison.”
On his ambition, Burna saud;
“The reason for everything I do is for one goal and one goal only, and that’s the eventual unity of Africa.
One day we’ll have one passport, one African currency, one Africa.
Then and only then will my mission be complete.”
Burna’s grandfather managed Fela early in the singer’s career and helped form his first band.
See other answers from the interview.