Nigerian recording artist Burna Boy used the names of Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan during a conversation about Black Americans. The Afrobeats star still has to respond to some previous comments he made about African descendants in the United States.
“Let’s use America,” answered Burna Boy earlier this year when asked about the importance of the African diaspora returning to the continent. “Why do you think Chinese Americans have their respect? They don’t go through the things that African Americans go through.”
He continued, “You know why? Because the Chinese American has a base. He actually knows where he’s from in China. Italian Americans know where their grandparents came from in Italy… Same goes for everyone else except African-Americans.”
Online Commenters Took Issue With Burna’s Remarks
Apparently, those comments from Burna Boy angered some social media users. In March, the I Told Them… album creator took to Instagram to respond to the backlash. He posted, in part, “I believe coming together as brothers and sisters is the only way forward to US Black people worldwide.”
Complex recently caught up with Burna Boy for an interview. The 32-year-old Grammy Award winner once again addressed the controversy surrounding his previous remarks about African-Americans and the African diaspora.
Burna Boy: My Mission Is Too Divine For Stupid S###
“My mission is to bring us together. My mission is to build a bridge that can’t be broken, a bridge that should’ve always been there,” said Burna. “So for me, that’s not really relevant. I don’t really look at none of that because I feel like when people say that they have their own agendas.”
The singer/songwriter also added, “There’s nothing I said that Malcolm X didn’t say. There’s nothing I said that The Honorable Louis Farrakhan didn’t say. But, obviously, it’s Burna Boy saying it and he’s from Africa… All that’s beneath me. My mission and my movements [are] too divine for stupid s### like that.”
Burna Boy’s seventh studio LP, I Told Them…, features GZA, 21 Savage, Dave, Seyi Vibez, RZA and J. Cole. The project joins a discography that also contains albums like 2018’s Outside, 2019’s African Giant, 2020’s Twice as Tall and 2022’s Love, Damini.
