Burna Boy speaks about new album 'I Told Them', experiencing global success and A-list collaborations

Burna Boy recently released his seventh album I Told Them and the Nigerian superstar joined Zane Lowe in New York City for a wide-ranging conversation about the making of the album and what led to the global success he’s experiencing.

Burna spoke about the importance of numerology on this album and the 12 jewels to a happy life, what sets the new album apart and being proud of his accomplishments.

He also spoke about Virgil Abloh’s influence, looking up to J. Cole, collaborating with RZA, embracing substance in Afrobeats and more.

You can watch Burna's interview with Zane here:

Here are some of the multi-award winning musician's responses to the questions:

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.

Burna Boy explains the meaning of the album title

They say a lot of times that the prophet is not really recognising its own home and sh*t. 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 sh*t. 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 sh*t I want. 

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 speaks 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 '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.