Burna Boy: Twice As Tall review – new heights for the Afro-fusion wizard

 

The tale of Nigerian superstar Burna Boy’s globe-straddling fifth album begins where many artists dream of ending up – at the 2020 US Grammy awards, held last January. But all was not well. Burna Boy was losing his lunch.

“I remember when I couldn’t level up,” the singer intones on Level Up, the album opener, “cause the Grammys had me feeling sick as fuck/ Throwing up and shit/ Asking questions like, ‘Why it wasn’t us?’”

The last time Burna Boy – real name Damini Ogulu – made a record, July 2019’s African Giant, it was a cultural landmark. At last count, this bold Afro-fusion album – a cocktail of Jamaican dancehall, hip-hop, R&B, traditional sources such as Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat and more contemporary pan-African party music – has had more than 1bn global streams. Ogulu, who comes from Nigeria but spent significant chunks of his late youth in the UK, sold out Wembley Arena last November. Stormzy, Dave and fellow Nigerian superstar Wizkid were guests.

North America was also alive to Burna Boy. Drake, naturally, sampled him as early as 2017. More recently, Ogulu’s work was featured on executive producer Beyoncé’s Lion King companion album, The Gift. Such was Burna Boy’s profile, African Giant was the favourite for the best world music Grammy, a problematic award in itself and one not usually accompanied by hype. Such was the album’s groundbreaking buzz, however, it could have been a contender in the main categories.