Grammys 2024: Burna Boy Is the Great Afrobeats Rockstar of Our Time In “City Boys”

Read the previously published articles in our Grammys 2024 series on Tyla's "Water" and Ayra Starr's "Rush."

The notion that Burna Boy is one of the most important proponents in Afrobeats’ global growth and dominance is undeniable. The thought that he’s been the most prolific and consistent superstar in Nigerian pop over the last six years is even more unarguable. Five albums in that timeframe is staggering for an artist with a seemingly unending touring schedule and a multitude of other commitments. But the most impressive fact is that each one these full-lengths is important in the ongoing lore of Damini Ogulu.

I Told Them..., Burna Boy’s summer '23 project, is a self-serving show of greatness, a victory lap that’s entirely boisterous and greatly enjoyable, only dulled due to a momentary lapse into megalomania. In a sense, it’s the album Burna had been waiting to make, one where he can gleefully sneer at the detractors — real and imagined — that never expected him to reach his current heights. You can hear it all over the project, but he’s at his most effective when he’s simply enjoying the spoils of stardom, as evidenced in the hedonist romp and infectious stomp of the Grammy-nominated highlight track, “City Boys.”

Burna Boy’s best boastful tracks are unmistakably flippant and self-reverential — think “Don Gorgon,” “Odogwu” or “Way Too Big.” It’s the same with “City Boys,” where his libidinous urges and lavish impulses combine to form a larger-than-life portrait of a rockstar in his element. The song opens with a sampled ad-lib from British-Gambian rap artist J Hus, which becomes an invocation in this context, of Burna’s desirability to “gyal all over the globe.” That leads into a first verse that might as well have come with an R-rated tag on it, the rasp in Burna’s voice imbuing each line with a matter-of-fact edge, and it’s impossible to not believe these lyrics are ripped straight from his life.

Burna Boy - City Boys [Official Music Video]

Where things get properly self-reverential is on the hook, declaring his preferred weed strain to smoke these days: “BRKFST mo n fa o.” In late 2022, Burna Boy launched his own cannabis brand, BRKFST, a shrewd and sensible move that capitalised on the viral “I need igbo and shayo” line off “Last Last.” With that line, Burna references both his product and arguably his biggest song yet, and the post-heartbreak, overtly sexual shenanigans of “City Boys” easily ties into the general narrative.

I Told Them... is notable for its heavy hip-hop dalliances, even more than 2020’s Twice As Tall. Apart from the contributions of Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and GZA, the most obvious part of this musical lean is in the variety of speaker-bursting bass kicks on the project. Paired with a plinking glockenspiel riff and glimmering piano chords, the drums on “City Boys” knock like they’re trying to cave listeners’ chests in through their ears. It felt appropriate that Burna leaned into the boots-stomping-on-pavement texture, inspiring a TikTok trend that further drove the song’s overall impact.

Not too many artists have taken advantage of the sonic ambiguity of Afrobeats — or Afro-fusion, as he prefers to call it — quite like Burna Boy. The versatility of his malleable baritone is now downright revered, and for good reasons, seeing as he can easily shift across styles or hone in on a singular inspiration to create something as distinctly striking as “City Boys.” In a Grammy category of similarly stunning songs, it’s not just a cue of the artist’s greatness — which has now become quotidian — but also a reminder that there are no boundaries in the current landscape of Nigerian and African popular music.