African Giant Burna Boy is gearing up for the release of his 4th studio album “Love Damini” on Atlantic Records/Spaceship label. Since selling out two nights in Madison Square Garden he has opened up himself to new audiences in America.
Burna’s latest single, the breakup anthem Last Last, which exploded after he first performed it at the Billboard Music Awards in May, samples Tony Braxton’s Darkchild produced “Wasn’t Man Enough.”
Burna, real name Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, stopped by the Million Dollars Worth Of Game Podcast where he shared the information about how the sample came about.
“I just wanted to use that sample, and I knew Chopstix(Producer) could do sumn crazy with it, so yeah, I just pointed that shit out and just take it from there , that’s one of the special creative processes ever,” he explained.
“But she is taking sixty percent of the shit,” he says with a huge grin. With the huge sample fee he hopes Toni Braxton will join him on tour for one of his shows.
“He Wasn’t Man Enough” was the lead single for Braxton’s third studio album, The Heat (2000), written by Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, LaShawn Daniels, and Harvey Mason, Jr. The song was released by LaFace Records on February 29, 2000.
It peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained there for two weeks behind the classic “Maria Maria” by Santana featuring The Product G & B. In total it spent 37 weeks on the chart. It debuted at number five on the UK Singles Chart. Last Last gave Burna Boy his first top 20 UK Singles Chart hit.
Braxton also earned her fourth Grammy Award from Wasn’t Man Enough For Me for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and was nominated for Best R&B Song in 2001.
During the interview it was also revealed that Burna Boy’s Grandfather, Benson Idonije was the manager of Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti. Burna says his Grandfather was always active in his musical journey and would guide him along the way even though at first he was not proud to be Nigerian.
“He kinda made me understand that I could do this.”
– Burna Boy, on his grandfather’s influence
Burna Boy, 31, defines his music as Afro-fusion because he says there wasn’t anything he could identify with when he came on the scene. He also sought to break down the difference between the musical genres coming out of Africa for American audiences who may have the terms and genres confused. He explained that as Nigerian music was becoming popular and taking form, a name was needed so people referenced the name Afrobeat and added an “s” to call it Afrobeats. He maintains that he doesn’t know who is responsible for that addition but went on to educate the hosts:
“It wasn’t Afrobeats in Africa, have Highlife, we have Juju music, we have Fuji music, we have all types of music, we have South African Kwaito music, we have Amapiano now, we have all types of music, we have real African hip hop, we have afro-pop, we have all types of genres in Africa,” he says.
He continued, “So to be really sincere, for you to just call everything Afrobeats, it kinda does a disservice.”
Last Last is currently No. 1 23 countries outside of home country Nigeria on Apple Music. Burna says,
“I always knew I was bigger than the space I was in, I always knew that where I was at is not where I belong, I didn’t belong in that situation and that place I belong in the world.”
He continued, “I identify myself as a global citizen.”
