Burna Boy: The Nigerian superstar talks RZA, J. Cole, getting credit and more with Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe

Need some one-on-one time with Burna Boy? Say less. The Nigerian hip-hop star comes through with a full-fledged conversation alongside Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe dishing on everything from music-making and collaborations to soaking in his achievements.

It’s all types of big talk so to make life easier, peep some of the biggest quotes below and keep scrolling to see the full interview.

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music What Sets His New Album ‘I Told Them…’ Apart… 

It kind of showed me exactly the way I wanted to express what I was feeling and what my unit was feeling. The spirit of my unit. Just put that in because this is every day. This is a side where people don't really get to see because I don't really care for anyone to see. I have fun with it like this. But I felt like this time, this is a way... How do I put it? A more understandable way to pass that feeling and that energy across. And at the same time, showing you that's... Not you. Showing everyone, really, that the combination of worlds is something that we haven't really capitalized on. Because at the end of the day, once we're all unified, everything else, the fruits of that just take care of everything. 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music About the Meaning of the Album Title… 

…they say a lot of times that prophets is not really recognizing its own home and shit. So this one is for the part of my own home and the people in my own home who didn't believe or doubt it, or still doubt, or any type of thing. And not just them, it's like everyone that ever heard me speak in the past or when I'd first started. You can go back to my old tweets and stuff. I basically predicted everything that's happening now. So this is basically that. It's fun to tell people something is true, and they doubt, and then they end up seeing it. There's no greater feeling. 

Burna Boy on the Type of Credit He Wants… 

I'm not going to say I don't want credit because everyone wants credit for what they do and shit. For me it's more like I want credit from places where it actually matters. Even though in reality don't mean nothing but places where you can say why, you can explain and it makes sense to everybody. That's the type of shit I want. I want to go somewhere where it's like they see the work and they see everything, the journey and everything, and they're like, "This is amazing. Yeah, congratulations.” That's the type of shit that means something. You don't get that in my country. It means something to the people who are not part of the game in a way. It means something to people who have nothing to gain or lose and no stakes in the matter. 

Burna Boy on Being Proud of His Accomplishments… 

That's the thing I've beat my chest the most about. It's the fact that, yeah, not only did I do it on my own terms and all that, I did it against all odds. You know what I mean? And against the wishes of the powers that be in my environment. You know what I mean? So yeah, it's something I'm really proud of. 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music About Virgil Abloh’s Influence… 

Especially like Virgil was the heart of this s**t. You know what I mean? The heart of the whole fashion world, especially for us Black. Not just that, it's just the cool creativity in the man's head. This is the difference. You look at something, he looks at it, you are seeing different colors than each, you know what I mean? It's crazy. 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music About Looking Up To J. Cole… 

Burna Boy: Legend, man.  

Zane Lowe: Legend. And someone who I feel beyond just creatively and musically you could possibly relate to in the way he handles himself, lives his life and finds his space to disappear too. Is that part of the law of attraction to his work that you recognize in the individual?  

Burna Boy: Most definitely, most definitely. The truth is often hidden, but when you come across it and you are a person of truth yourself, you can't help but recognize it. You know what I mean? That's really the story of me and J Cole. It's like, I recognize it.  

Zane Lowe: Is that where you're going, do you think?  

Burna Boy: That's something I've always looked at, his sense and thought, "Bro, that would be a nice, very conducive way to end up.” 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music About Embracing Substance in Afrobeats… 

…you hear most of Nigerian music, or I'll say African... I don't even know what to say, Afrobeats, as people call it, it's mostly about nothing, literally nothing. There's no substance to it. Nobody's talking about anything. It's just a great time, it's an amazing time. But at the end of the day, life is not an amazing time. No matter how nice of a time you're having now or you had at some point or you plan to have, you're still going to face life. So it's like, for me, I feel like music should be that, music should be the essence of the artist, you understand? The artist is a person, like me speaking for myself, the artist is a person who has good days, bad days, great days, and worst days. And for me, if I give you something like this with my face on it, and my name, then I should be giving you that experience. That should be a window for you to see some of that essence. 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music About Collaborating with RZA… 

Yeah, it's been a great honor, man. He wasn't there. We weren't personally in the studio together when he did it, but when he sent the first draft to me, I could just feel the energy, it's like most of the shit is about, he's connecting things that have to do with photography, shit that has to do with the vision, like photographic shit. And he's made the whole thing, he combined and interlock and it's just crazy. 

Burna Boy Tells Apple Music “If I’m Lying” Is His Best Song Yet… 

I feel like it's my best song ever… It's spiritual. 

Burna Boy on Fela Kuti…

I am grateful for the fact that he existed in his time so that we could get and experience the true organic nature of what he was and the essence of what he stood for and the message he passed across to us. 

Burna Boy on His First Impressions of New York… 

To me, it looked just like Lagos, only with more tall buildings closer together. The same energy as Lagos. It's the same... Everybody's in a hurry. I felt like, "Wow. This can't be what they've been showing me on TV.” This don't look like TV land… this place is very sentimental for me because starting from PlayStation theater all the way to Citi Field now. It's been a journey. 

Burna Boy on the Benefits of Traveling the World… 

Man, the more I see the world and the more I experience just makes me understand myself a bit more, understand why things are the way they are a bit more. I just have a lot of answers to a lot of questions I used to have and previously didn't have answers for.

J Hus: The 'Masculine' flex is fully activated with Burna Boy in the new music video

There’s something special brewing with J Hus these days. From putting out big collaborations with artists like rap heavyweight Drake to delivering hard-hitting tunes, it’s all eyes on the international star. So it’s only right to geek out over what he’s serving up courtesy of the new ‘Masculine’ music video with Burna Boy.

The bromance vibes are blazing and it’s all types of fire must-see content in the three-minute clip. Peep the details and keep scrolling to see them turning up.

Following a three-year hiatus, J Hus’ third studio album Beautiful and Brutal Yard recently stormed in and claims the #1 spot across The Official Albums Chart in the UK with over 130M album streams to-date. The universally acclaimed 19-track body of work was recently nominated for the 2023 Mercury Prize for the best British album of the year, which earns Hus his second nomination overall. To add to the excitement, today J Hus shares the latest visuals taken from the universally acclaimed album, “Masculine” ft. Burna Boy—B.A.B.Y.’s second most streamed track thus far.

Anyone that might have missed him jumping on stage for Burna Boy’s recent London Stadium show is in luck: the visuals for “Masculine,” which was shot by Nathan Miller entirely in black and white, gives us a glimpse of how it went down backstage and during the lively performance itself. 
 

Named after the patois influenced slang term for home, Beautiful and Brutal Yard is a reference to the two sides of Hus and his heart. It follows J Hus’ sophomore effort Big Conspiracy – one of 2020’s most critically lauded albums world-wide, which netted him a BRIT Award for Best British Male. His 2017 debut studio album Common Sense cemented him as a rap champ and innovator; and in between both albums, he nabbed multiple features on from some of the music industry’s biggest artists, such as Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Skepta, and Dave.

Beautiful and Brutal Yard is already one of the year’s most celebrated albums. Besides receiving a Mercury Prize nomination just two weeks after release, the album continues to receive glowing reviews and high praise. The New York Times named it one of their “Favorite Albums of 2023 So Far” on a recent episode of the podcast Popcast, while NPR proclaimed that Hus sounds “like he is really poised to blow up state-side with this record.” HotNewHipHop proclaimed that he delivered “The Soundtrack To Summer 2023” while NME dubbed the album “a joyous return.” The FADER described how “the energy on Beautiful and Brutal Yard is the kind that emerges when your biggest competitor is yourself” while Billboard announced “J Hus returns with a vengeance.” Uproxxperhaps summed it up best: “Hus uses his third album to provide a vivid and detailed account of his roots and upbringing, giving equal attention to all that’s beautiful and brutal. This duality contributes to everything on the album: its sonic appeal, the thrill of J Hus’ narratives, and the rapper’s overall artistic vision.” Further, Barack Obama picked hit single “Who Told You” ft. Drake as the #1 song on his “Favorite Songs of Summer 2023” list.

For Hus, all roads lead back to the music. Look close at the album title Beautiful and Brutal Yard and spot the acronym: baby. Whether it’s brutal, beautiful, or shuffling somewhere between the two, music is Hus’ baby. On his third studio album, this has never been more clear and present. The stage is set. The man has many names – Uju Militer, The Farda, Ezmalay, The Ugliest (so named after his clothing brand of the same name). But there’s only one J Hus.

Burna Boy: Here's a behind the scenes look at his sold-out London Stadium takeover

It’s no secret - Burna Boy is really on fire these days. Pun intended, of course. The hip-hop artist shows no signs of slowing down and takes fans deeper into his non-stop grind with a deep dive conversation with Apple Music 1’s Ebro Darden.

From a behind the scenes look at his historic sold out London stadium show to talking about his latest music, the global superstar doesn’t hold back on this journey.

Burna Boy sits down with Ebro Darden on location in London ahead of his Apple Music Live performance to talk about the journey from Nigeria to the legendary London Stadium. Burna Boy knew that he was destined for greatness telling Ebro, "I guarantee you there's nothing that's happening now that I didn't tell them in 2013 and 2014, '15 and '16. I've been saying this was going to happen because I knew.” The Love, Damini artist is dedicated to helping listeners continually discover music saying, "We're trying to make the world understand that music is bigger than a genre.”

The GRAMMY® Award-winning Nigerian artist’s sold-out performance at London Stadium will debut this Wednesday, July 19th at 12:00pm PST / 8:00pm UK on Apple Music at apple.co/-BurnaBoyAML, Apple TV+, and on Apple Music and Burna Boy’s TikTok pages @AppleMusic and @burnaboyofficial. Fans can also stream Burna Boy’s performance on demand on both Apple Music and Apple TV+. 

Burna Boy is both the most-streamed Nigerian artist of all time on Apple Music worldwide and the most-streamed artist in Nigeria of all time. His acclaimed 2019 album ‘African Giant’ broke the record for the biggest African album by first-day and first-week streams worldwide and 2022’s ‘Love, Damini’ became the No. 1 album on Apple Music in 70 countries and smashed the record for the biggest first-day and first-week for an album by an African artist — a record he still holds. Burna Boy’s songs have reached the Daily Top 100 in more than 130 countries, including 98 where they’ve reached the Top 10, and on TikTok his most trending songs include "For My Hand”, “Jagele”, “Last Last”, and “Bank On It”. 

Burna Boy chops it up with the legendary Elton John on Apple Music 1

It’s not everyday you get the chance to talk to a living legend like Elton John so of course Burna Boy is taking advantage. The hitmaker pulls through for one of EJ’s Rocket Hour sessions on Apple Music 1 to dish on everything from new tunes to headlining Madison Square Garden.

Check out some of the key interview quotes and keep scrolling to see the duo in action. Reminder, the episode airs tomorrow, July 16, at 9 AM PST/12 PM ET at apple.co/_RocketHour.

Elton John on Burna Boy’s music

I absolutely love and cherish his music. He's just one of the greatest artists ever to come out of Africa.

Burna Boy on recording his new album 'Love, Damini'

Started last year and then, it's been an amazing process. It's been nothing but a blessing. It's been an experience most important.

Burna Boy on headlining Madison Square Garden

I was just overwhelmed by the whole thing. Because that's like some stuff that, coming from where I'm coming from, Africa, Nigeria and stuff, it doesn't even feel real.

Elton John on African music

You are so loved. African music is so well known now, it’s not just world music. All the music coming out of Africa is so interesting and so brilliant.

Elton John and Burna Boy on wanting to work together in the studio soon

ELTON JOHN: I'm on a world tour at the moment. But when things calm down, if you ever want to do a song with me, I'd be... You are the one artist that I really would love to do something with, because you really make me happy, and your music is just so fantastic. I've played eight tracks of you already on the Rocket Hour. So, we go back a long way on the Rocket Hour with you. I would love one day to catch up and do something in the studio with you. It would be an honor for me to do that.

BURNA BOY: Man, of course. I've been looking forward to that for so long.

ELTON JOHN: All right. Well, I promise you one day we'll get together, and we'll do something. I can't wait to do that.