I’ve to think for a whole generation before myself – Burna Boy

By Ekaete Bassey

Grammy award-winning singer, Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has stated he thinks of a whole generation before himself.

For a new cover feature on British GQ, he talks about his humble beginnings in Port Harcourt, what his Grammy win means for Africa and much more.

In the photos following the cover story, Burna looked his best yet in a slew of outfits from Louis Vuitton paired with other high fashion brands.

Burna Boy revealed he was able to achieve his recent successes on the global stage because he came to a point where he realized that it’s either greatness or death.

Speaking in a recent interview with GQ Magazine, he said: “Following several collaborations with foreign artistes of African heritage, I just made up my mind that I wanted it all. I wanted to be the greatest.

That’s when it hit me really hard that I had to do it. It was that or death. I was not celebrating because of myself. It was almost as if I had broken a mental cycle of our people.

“Our people had been very mentally oppressed to feel like they could not do certain things and that certain things were unreachable.

“Every day, I realise more that things are bigger than me. I have to think for a lot of people basically a whole generation before I think of myself.”

READ ALSO: Burna Boy’s “Ye” certified Gold in US

Odogwu further revealed when he was young, he would sit, watch the Grammy Awards and dream.

For as long as he can remember, for as long as he has released songs, the Grammys have floated somewhere in his periphery, a milestone he was sure he would one day reach.

That day finally arrived in March at the 63rd iteration of the awards show.

The world watched as he won “Best global music album”.

Burna noted: “I’ve come from Port Harcourt, the bottom of the map in Nigeria, and now I’ve become a champion.

“It may not mean anything to someone else, but to me, and to us, it means more than you can imagine.”

His emergence onto the world stage in recent years has been representative of a wider shift, a symbol for how sounds and cultures rumbling from Africa, and its diaspora scattered through Western countries and continents, have crossed into the heartlands of global pop culture.