Over the last 2 years Burna Boy has dominated the African music space throughout the world. Particularly because he’s one of the flagship artists when people think of Afrobeats. During that time Burna Boy has released two albums, African Giant in 2019 and Twice as Tall in 2020. These albums couldn’t be more contradicting in terms of their overall reception from the masses. We take a deep dive to see how this has happened.
African Giant
African Giant is Burna Boy’s 4th studio album which he released in July of 2019. The reception it received from worldwide audiences was incredible. It was like as if he could do no wrong with this album. Entrenched in dance and African rhythms & sounds, it was impossible not to find yourself tapping your foot or better yet just dancing. Not to mention he also touches on the struggles of Africans in songs like ‘Wetin man go do’ and ‘Dangote’.
“Wetin man go do is a pidgin phrase that translates to ‘What will a man do’ . The song describes the struggles of living in a African economy. This song detailing the struggle of making a livelihood in Lagos is cleverly followed by the song ‘Dangote’, aka Aliko Dangote who is the richest man in Africa.” — Genius
All in all the body of work is amazing because on one hand he’s trying to cater to the African market with dance anthems while on the other hand there’s still a number of important messages being relayed in the music.
On the 26th of June 2020, Burna Boy announced on his Instagram that African Giant has reached 1 billion streams worldwide — A true indication of the album’s popularity. Furthermore he sold out 2 shows in the UK in years before, which is unheard of if for an African act on foreign soil.
Burna Boy has had some of the most iconic sold out shows in UK by a Nigerian
2018: He sold out O2 Brixton Academy
2019: He sold Wembley ArenaHe was visibly given a plaque by the organisers for having a completely sold out show on the two occassions.#AfricanGiant#TwiceAsTall pic.twitter.com/JjHprjMCHh
— Corliion🦍 (@corliion) September 1, 2020
Twice As Tall
Having left empty handed at the 2020 Grammy awards was mind boggling after the year Burna Boy had because of African Giant. At the same time its not that much of a surprise if you know the history of Grammy awards. Fast forward to August of 2020, Burna boy releases his most recent project titled Twice As Tall. With Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs as an executive producer on the album, it was expected to do great and so it did. Burna won a Grammy for Best Gobal Music Album the following year.
When you look at the numbers Twice As Tall peaked at #54 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart whereas African Giant peaked at number #104. It gained 11.4 million audio streams in the U.S which surpasses the 8.5 million he received on the opening week for African Giant.
Burna Boy’s vision for Twice As Tall was to unite all people of color, meaning he’s trying to make all black people aware that despite where you were born, our experiences, struggles and cultures are very much similar. It’s clear to see here that Burna is trying to go global and cater to a more international/western audience. A good example of that would be his feature with Chris Martin on ‘Monsters you made’, a song which tackles the colonial treatment and perceptions surrounding African people.
Twice As Tall, Burna Boy delivers handsomely on the promise of great music for his crossover ambitions. It’s the strongest part of his offering, one that gives him the necessary tools to hit the crossover bullseye. The weakness here lies far from his studio efforts. It’s in the coherence of his message. As the world is further offered a chance to benefit from Afrobeats rich cultural spectrum, there’s a growing transcontinental Black-bridge deployed in the marketing of African art. Burna Boy is dipping his narrative in the noble rhetoric of black leadership via marrying African-American idealisms with Pan-African euphoria — Joey Akan, Afrobeats Intelligence
The difference between the two
The beauty about Afrobeats and African music in general is that the beat is important. Once you remove the indigenous rhythm that connects to the people, the whole song falls apart or the message falls flat. Come closer by Wizkid and Drake was smash hit, peaking at number 1 on most music charts, this is a great example of Drake adding his flavour to an already good song, everything about it felt authentic.
When looking at both albums one was a commercial success while the other was a cultural success.
Commercially, now that a Grammy nomination accompanies his name, Burna Boy has unlocked more doors to fame and fortune. With that has come the delicate task of catering to a global listenership without shedding identity — a real test of the philosophy of the Afro-fusion label.
Does Twice As Tall boast of more height than the record it draws comparison to? The answer is, probably not. African Giant is still Burna Boy’s magnum opus. It may not have won the Grammy, but it remains his best foot forward — Gabriel Myers Hansen,Music Africa
In terms of impact, African Giant, is untouchable. It is easily Burna Boy’s best album. It made such a noise in the culture that Americans not only loved the sound but also jumped onto it. A top example is Beyonce’s Lion King: The Gift Album, which is entrenched in Afrobeats, Afrofusion and Gqom dance beats. Exactly what you would expect from an African artist.
On the other hand Twice As Tall did numbers and won awards that Burna couldn’t achieve before. Clearly adjusting his sound to a more international audience grew his popularity yet it killed his impact. If you ask for the perspective of an African, Twice As Tall is not that great. Not because the music wasn’t good but the songs simply don’t resonate the same as before. A major factor to this album not being seen as great is that there’s barely any dance rhythms to jam to. One thing about black people is that we love to dance, no matter what trials and tribulations we’re going through we love to dance our problems away.
In fact, one could argue that aside from its clever global marketing strategies, the fact that Burna Boy’s previous album floated largely on dance is the reason it was a continental success and consequently became loved by the rest of the world, which in recent years has developed a healthy appetite for African dance rhythms — Gabriel Myers Hansen, Music Africa
