Afro-fusion singer, Burna Boy has rejected comparison between him and Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
Speaking in a feature titled Burna Boy, Global Giant in the latest issue of GQ magazine, the 28-year-old said it is dishonourable to compare him with the Fela, who died in 1997.
The Grammy-nominee also spoke on the comments he made last year about refusing to perform in South Africa following a spate of xenophobic attacks in the country.
“Fela is my inspiration and my childhood hero, so if you think comparing me to Fela is honourable, it’s actually not,” he said.
“It actually makes me feel weird. Fela was Fela, and if it wasn’t for Fela, there probably wouldn’t be any me, so I don’t understand the comparison.”
Speaking on xenophobic attacks in South Africa, which led to the cancellation of the Africans Unite concert, which he was set to headline in the country, he said: “It’s all just very fucked-up and twisted, and I wish to God that it wasn’t so, but it is, and all I can do is try and do my part to change it, no matter how small that part is. It’s almost as if the oppressors have won when the oppressed start acting like this.
“My family is Africa, which is why you will hear me speaking on the South Africa issue, which is why it strikes a nerve. It’s almost like having your whole body, and your hand is not working. That’s what it feels like.
“There’s too much going on in the world for everybody to just care about being fucking rich and fucking Instagram-clouded; everybody can’t be that. The more of that there is, the more the world suffers, and what’s important just goes down the drain and the downward spiral continues. It’s even accelerated. Now is the time. Everybody should wake the fuck up. South Africa and the whole of Africa needs to wake the fuck up.”
He also told his interviewers Lola Ogunnaike that he finds interviews stressful.
“I find them more stressful than going on tour. Because most of the questions you all ask are very direct, simple questions. But then I answer simply, and then you’re waiting for the rest like there’s supposed to be a rest of the answer when there really isn’t,” he said.
