Burna Boy on His New Album: ‘It's not really my comfort zone to be in one place’

Burna Boy released his new album Twice As Tall last week Friday to mixed first reactions. While some peeps were raving about how great the project was, a reasonable number of people weren't moved.

Speaking to Apple Music's Zane Lowe, and not necessarily in response to Twitter, Burna Boy admitted to the project being different to his previous effort.

"It's just very different because I've never really sat and been stuck in one place and had to make an album in that one place before," said Burna Boy during the interview with Zane Lowe on the Beats 1 show New Music Daily. "So this is a new experience. It's a challenge and it was a triumph. It's a challenge because it's something I'm not used to and it's not really my comfort zone to be in one place. I feel like I'm probably like a traveller. A proper caravan."

Twice as Tall features the likes of Youssou N'Dour, Naught By Nature, Sauti Sol, Stormzy and Chris Martin. Speaking on working with the latter, the Nigerian superstar said:

"Yeah, basically it's something I wanted. I recorded the song and there was a space in the hook and in my mind, I'm like, "There's only one person I could possibly think of to fit this, to bring out this message in a way that will have the balance that will make it appealing to everyone else to understand, not just my people, but the whole world to understand." And I'm thinking, "Okay, only Chris Martin can do this." And we went on a hunt for Chris Martin. Apparently Chris was a fan of mine as well, so that kind of made life easier."

Speaking on releasing music during the Covid-19 pandemic, Burna Boy expressed having "mixed emotions".

"At the same time," he said, "I consider every disappointment and every challenge to be a blessing because who knows? It probably wouldn't be this beautiful if we weren't all stuck in this place going through the same things. And everyone is just in a position where they want to listen, they're ready to listen right now because ... and not just dance and not just turn up to, now it's like they want to listen. They want to hear something. So if they want to hear something, why not the truth?"

The musician added that he's using the down-time to watch documentaries and educate himself about the universe. He also added towards the end of the interview how he feels African leaders are holding the continent back.

Listen to the full interview on Apple Music.

Stream Twice As Tall on Apple Music and Spotify.