here comes the AFRICAN GIANT / Burna Boy (2019)

This album deserves its own thread, plus I'm genuinely curious what will win here--I have no idea what I'll be voting for.

too hard. AotY

otm x2

"on the low" is still my favourite

impossible, but my gut is leaning towards the obvious here (anybody)

Probably not voting for it but I was surprised no one mentioned Destiny in the other thread

gotta go with 'anybody'

Anybody is pretty undeniable. A few months ago Secret would have been my immediate choice. Tempted by Dangote and after the npr tiny desk thing I have Wetin Man Go Do stuck in my head bad

anybody is my real answer but i’m voting for gum body

this whole album is fantastic, but anybody is the best song of the year.

next five after nobody something like this

gum body
killen dem
dangote
pull up
secret

title track is dope too

Jorja Smith f. Burna “Be Honest” has really grown on me too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q93PQz04SM

every time one of these tracks comes up on my playlist it's the best track, "Gum Body" takes some beating but then yeah the title track

on the low is one of my favs still

The real answer is Gbona but it came out so much time before the album that it feels previously released (that's the digital age for you), so as a 2019 release I would still say the one with which I discovered the album, namely Killin Dem, because it begins so raw and grows so hypnotic. But I don't disagree with my fellow voters, there are many highlights in these 19 tracks.

I voted for Anybody, but this is easily my album of the year.

between this and kehlani's for me

voted for Dangote as it sounds like Anybody is sure to win and I love getting the Dangote lyrics (or my fucked up mental approximation of them) in my head

I learnt at work yesterday that Dangote is a Nigerian company that sold everything from groceries and clothing to now moving to cement and oil production in the Delta, and that mister Dangote is now the richest man in Africa.

Their commercials are all over CNN!

dangote is my favourite too

Voting deadline fast approaching and I still haven’t made up my mind.

I was lucky enough to see Burna live in Amsterdam in October (in the biggest venue for an Afropop act so far) and can confirm: literally all of these tracks are anthems. The crowd lapped it up, and he was all smiles all the time. Nothing Tiny Desk about it at all!

So I’m more or less following Nabozo’s reasoning: “Gbona” and “On The Low” (no matter how gigantic they are still) are out, they were 2018 EOY material. So another one of the 9 (!) tracks that have had the video treatment so far? “Anybody”, “Gum Body”, and yes!!!! “Killin Dem” (again, yes!!!) are all worthy. And then there’s “Spiritual”, still my favourite of the deep cuts.

Still some time left...

(and yes, AOTY, no question)

voted Anybody but so many of these tracks are better than a lot of other stuff i was into this year.

Spiritual is awesome. I might have already said this on the other thread, but I love how Outside ends with that line about his mother worrying about him ending up like Vybz Kartel, and then this one ends with a clip of her accepting a BET award for him

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

was just getting into this and he drops a history lesson :D

wasn't sure about the first few tracks but there's a shift in mood to something more melancholy and rounded about 1/3 of the way in ('gum body' might be that moment), and i really dig the more guitar-led stuff

it is a little funny to have learned about Unilever's colonial history from this album

it sort of feels like he had to frontload a few more conventional bangers before getting into the deeper message of what he wanted to say - is this a fair criticism? maybe it's just taken a few tracks for me to get in the mood lol

I'd be a little surprised if that impression continued for multiple listens, if for no other reason than Anybody seems close to the consensus favorite around here. Also, Wetin Man Go Do has that same vibe if I'm understanding your take. For me this album is 100% killer with one exception: "This Side" and only because of YG).

Agreed on the guitar though--I've been idly thinking about starting a thread for guitar in contemporary non-rock production. I feel like a surprisingly large number of my favorite tracks this year have guitar in them. Part of it is the highlife/afrobeat legacy resurfacing in Nigerian and Nigerian-influenced stuff, but it's still remarkable imo

yeah start that thread! there's some really lovely work here.

oh look here's future, guess the spell's broken ;)

based on almost the whole album, will vote for one of the tracks in that run from 'gum body', or 'different'

Yes to the highlife-y guitar, it's integrated so beautifully, production-wise. Always makes me happy cos I love that sound.

yeah i'm voting 'secret', that song is magical

but 'different' was a close second

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

<3 whoever voted for Blak Ryno

Those are not the results I saw in my dream last night! There every song had received at least one vote, though I can’t tell you who came out on top. Voted for “Killin Dem” in the end myself.

Now treat yourselves to the Wizkid EP perhaps? It has Kel-P, and guitars!

More Burna, more Kel-P, plus de... Dadju:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwEyHYGIO80
“Donne moi l’accord”

I wasn’t aware of this afrobeat track, from Queen & Slim: The Soundtrack that came out last month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGcQOyNqmyQ
Burna Boy • My Money, My Baby

But in somewhat bigger news: a brand new single for Christmas with a distinctly different sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFHekqPaI
Burna Boy • Money Play

dig all three of these.

Video #10 is for “Secret”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZcmBH7PnSM

Dedicating it to longneck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGL1JoC2IaQ
👌🏼

^^^ oh hey i coengine33red this song! recorded b3urna's ho3ok a cpl months ago. happy to see it released so soon

This song is apparently a month old but I only heard it today. It's an absolute banger.

Nappy & Burna Boy - Aye
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCXjRUasA48

that's awesome, esby, good work!

xp

love the nappy track. such a bop - burna can do no wrong rn

Hardly any discussion here about the “Money Play” single Burna dropped last Xmas. It has definitely grown on me, but it still feels like a bit of a hiccup in his imperial phase.

Anyway, I made a pseudo-pan-African-pop/not-pop playlist for the rolling afro 2020 thread and all Afro-adjacent threads, generously defined. It’s already 108 tracks deep, so enjoy!

ILM rolling✳️all-inclusive✳️afro 2020

I will say that piece and pitchfork's both correctly identify Cloak & Dagger as a highlight

And I generally agree with the first half >> second half narrative of both reviews. I called this "extremely smooth" upthread but I think what I should have said was "extremely mellow," so these takes aren't very surprising. The album could use a bigger dose of the biting menace you get in Kilometre

Pitchfork classifies it under… Rap?? what now??

anyway, that review (the P’fork one) is generally on point

Yeah agreed, the concluding paragraph is a v good summation, though the MLK handwringing is a bit much--not that that's a good line lol, but "extracting associative value" is silly in light of 6 decades of misuse & abuse of that speech

yeah the first run of songs (before the non-j hus guests start showing up) is pretty flawless imo, but i haven't been returning to the second half beyond "common person," "vanilla," and the blxst/kehlani collab

agree that the first half is stronger & more interesting, but idk the only dud is the khalid track

here’s a Nigerian review that makes more sense than the Joey Akan one - although I don’t agree with some of the song assessments.

meanwhile, it’s “Vanilla” that gets a video besides the Ed Sheeran collabo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYl4ZCZDAI

It's pretty subtle but does the album mix of Kilometre sounds different to anyone else? Not just different but a little better/more banging if my ears can be trusted

Yeah, I noticed it at once. Not sure if it needed it, but there’s more going on in the mix for sure.

more Burna chart stats - I know you love ‘em:

“Last Last” enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #86, his first US hit. it’s now #7 in the UK, where “For My Hand” debuts at #30 - making it the first amapiano-ish(-ish) track to go top 40, I think?

Love, Damini enters the UK (and Dutch) album charts at #2, and the Billboard 200 Albums at #14, highest peaks for an afropop/afrobeats album ever (for comparison, Made in Lagos debuted at #15 in the UK and #80 in the US (and #28 for the Deluxe Edition when “Essence” was blowing up)

listening to the album again today after a couple of days hiatus: first half remains very strong, of the second-half collabos I still like the J Balvin one, but turns out “Solid” ain’t bad either. the others tho… nah.

"common person" too ordinary? "vanilla" too...you know?

I was talking about the songs with features specifically. the rest of the second half is also weaker than the first, but “Common Person” in
particular stood out much more for me this time

“Wild Dreams” is more like a tame impala tho

xp ah missed the word "collabos" in there

icymi, Last Last has been riddim-ized in JA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y36Bg8wvPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugwBn8doVk

Gotta love Skilli's minimalism. Bay-be.

new song, “Alone”, from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever thingy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8qGmBtXZV8

it’s growing on me

Burna x Balvin, “Rollercoaster”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyVVGW-5ITw

sounds like a rehash of “Anybody”/“Gbona”-era Burna, aimed primarily (or even exclusively) at the global market. not sure the song is all that strong tho.

it would have fit fine on the last album, it's pleasant but nothing special

sounding great on talibans - https://open.spotify.com/album/4EouhaKTJkW8xRpLsCz7va?si=dCzd-LIOR5mXGfiFg7K9TA

^otm

his new single "Big 7" is so much fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GATRApPww8

new album out 8/25

hell yeah

if this means there's a RZA beat on the album...oh man

yeah “big 7” is great … one of the best things from him in recent memory

i really love this song... "ghetto gospel preacher / two time community service breacher" is a great line

i can't quite put my finger on it but this feels like it harkens back to 'outside' era to me in that it's sorta this sui generis version of pop-rap that has clear west african/american/carribean influences but feels slightly unmoored from any specific region or genre, all the influences are baked in and not easily separable. it's kinda like he's just floating above the globe, absorbing sounds and then spitting out a song where everything feels seamlessly woven together (forgive my metaphor mixing). great record. i feel like i got burned a bit by the last album, which i really wanted to like (and which had a great lead single), but this song has me optimistic

https://www.vibe.com/music/music-news/burna-boy-afrobeats-lacks-substance-faces-backlash-1234783091/

Burna Boy getting flack for telling Apple interviewer that afrobeats lacks substance

New album sounds perfect and unforced outside of the wu tang features.

he's kinda coasting in the same way as the last album but it's still good, very solid stuff

no idea what the point of the wu-tang interludes is though

yeah this is rather good! only listened once, but I think I was more into the second half? starting with Big 7 it really flows, though agreed about the Wu stuff and I probably just need to pay more attention to the first half

upgrading my opinion to: this rules

I'm curious what J0rd thinks?

have only listened once, but i am not entirely surprised by the mixed reception, considering this is such a blatant mainstream play. but i think it's pretty good overall, give or take a j. cole verse, definitely a major step above last year's alb.

I’m not sure what mainstream means in this context

it feels like he’s trying to speak more to the rap establishment with the wu appearances, plus 21 savage and j. cole guest verses

oh ok that makes sense. He’s bigger than j cole in my mind but that’s probably empirically wrong

caught his concert last night, the show is incredible. live version of “anybody” blew the roof off the place

he is awesome live

recorded version of “it’s plenty” was a bit too cheesy to me but a stadium full of people singing along and going nuts to it while Burna boy is jumping up and down with the worlds widest grin on his face with confetti cannons and fireworks going off behind him really warmed me on it

The new album is pretty good! I even listened all the way through the one with Mick Jagger (my defenses might have been weakened by Slow Horses).

At this point — that point being: no longer expecting another African Giant — I've grown fond of some of his weak spots: the white rock star features, super obvious interpolations/samples, Wu Tang nostalgia, the occasional yuck sex metaphor

I should list the album's good points too lol, but I'll have to re-listen to pick highlights. Overall I'd say it sounds like he's relaxed into a really consistent and pleasurable groove

the jagger song would be really great if it weren’t for the grafted on jagger bits

The Jagger bits do seem too grafted on. There are some good cuts here as Rob noted.

the mick jagger feature was significantly more baffling than i expected it to be

like that was just an old unreleased solo track jagger had lying around and gave to burna boy to splice onto a totally unrelated song, right?

yes definitely, which is really too bad because burna boy’s part is well written. should’ve just done a normal hook

I wonder why the CD version doesn't have the Mick Jagger song

A woman who was ordered out of Burna Boy's Denver concert for falling asleep in the front row has spoken publicly about the incident, revealing she was emotionally exhausted and grieving the recent death of her child's father. The Nigerian superstar paused his performance after spotting the woman, telling the couple to leave before he continued the show. The moment went viral, reigniting conversation around concert etiquette, artist accountability and how performers respond to fans during live events

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/other/burna-boy-kicked-a-woman-out-of-his-concert-for-sleeping-but-she-says-she-was-grieving-her-partners-death/ar-AA1QBrT9?apiversion=v2&domshim=1&noservercache=1&noservertelemetry=1&batchservertelemetry=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1

The whole US tour cancelled now. Some say it was actually overly expensive ticket prices as much as a backlash to his behavior in kicking out the sleeping woman