Burna Boy always had international ambitions – clearly; but there was a tipping point when handwork, Gods grace & opportunity met .
Years back in 2017, as the Wizkid & Davido goat debate raged on, Burna boy was putting finishing touches to his anticipated album “outside”
January 26th 2018, BurnaBoy released his album- “Outside” but no one was really paying attention
It picked some radio plays, but not so much- Everyone was in a “Wizkid State of mind” – his hit track “Manya” released in November of 2017 was still very much in the air. Davido’s “Fia” was still enjoying massive airplay- Burna boy’s outside was effectively drowned in all the noise.
To make matter worse, Three weeks after Burna released his album, Wizkid dropped “Soco” closely followed by “Fake love”. Then Davido bought Chioma (his girlfriend) a Porsche followed with a hit track “Assurance”
Sorry who is Burna boy again? Everyone was back to the Wizkid & Davido debate
But When God wants to bless you, Don’t put him in a box
June 1st 2018- Kanye west releases “Ye” his eight-studio album
The self-titled Ye was basically about his struggle with Bipolar disorder
Coincidentally, one of the tracks in Burnaboy’s album is also titled “YE” So, as Kanye’s fans searched for his album on streaming platforms, the search algorithm also introduced them to Burna boys single “YE”
Many of Kanye West fans around the world were forced to listen to Burna’s album and completely fell in love with it . Burna boy’s music sales went up 200% as fans bought the entire album calling it fire
Burna boy had to send a shout out to Kanye West thanking him for sending up his numbers
For the next few months BurnaBoy Quickly Leveraged his new fanbase
He was already prescheduled to tour the US, but following his new wave of popularity and international audience, his tickets sold out in larger venues and covered more cities
Let’s just say that Burna boy was on Tour for the rest of 2018, but that did not stop him from releasing more music to solidify his presence.
Just six weeks after Kanye west blew up his track Ye- he delivered the music video( while on tour) which earned him over 32.4 million views as (at the time of Writing) Then he quickly followed up with two singles – Gbona, (presently 22 million views) and “on the low” (52million views)
Burna boy was making a silent wave – Universal music took notice and approached him for a publishing deal- (Music copyrights & distribution).
According to Burna he signed the deal on his own terms with an option to pull out if he is unhappy.
Nigerians were now forced to sit up and take notice, Burna boy had gone international while we were arguing about Wizkid & Davido, but Burna continued to make giant strides in silence.
October 2018
Burna boy was awarded with a plaque by O2 Academy, Brixton for selling out his show. He was also recognized by Youtube as the new artist on the rise – his image boldly displayed on New-York Time Square
We could go on and on till we get to his BET awards or is appearance on Trevor Noah’s show
But the point of this post is to discuss his tipping point – that moment when God’s grace working through Kanye West opened him up to millions of new international fans
Imagine if “Ye” was one crappy song, imagine if his outside album was not as good as it was. He would have missed a once in a life time golden ticket. #stayready
Be the first to comment