Burna Boy’s I Told Them: African House Meets The Wu – Tang

Nigerian house, hip hop and club artist Burna Boy is back with his record I Told Them, which features RZA, Dave and 21 Savage among others. The title track, which I am writing about, features GZA in a last minute cameo. This is the seventh record from Burna Boy, but his fourth record African Giant is probably his most well known. He branches out from his usual house / club style on this track, so let’s see how he did.

First off, this is a different Burna Boy than electo and autotune heavy African Giant. First of all, this title track starts out with clapping and a count in, which comes across as organic and an outtake. Now, I am a huge fan of a count in, so I am already hooked. The acoustic guitars and organic sounding percussion mixes well with more bass heavy synth. There is still some post production on his vocal, but the guitar gives the track an India Arie Acoustic Soul vibes…by the way…India Arie is amazing and you need to listen to her now. This combination of more organic instruments combined with his trademark club gives the track more of a grounded feel, but enough club to give it some depth.

Lyrically, the track is what you would expect. It is mainly about Burnsa Boy telling people that he would make it and then rubbing it in the faces of his haters. This is not unexpected and not totally original, but it is fresh enough to avoid being cliche. I like how there is less going on with his vocal. Burna Boy has a reggae vibe to his vocal and that is largely lost when he goes too crazy on post production effects. There is some of that on this track, but far less than previous records. Now, GZA from Wu – Tang comes a the end of the track for a fun cameo. I would have liked more of him throughout the track, but some GZA is better than no GZA.

Even though this track and record is not as game changing as African Giant, it is a solid Burna Boy track with some fresh ideas and cool collabs. I think Burna Boy gives an interesting point of difference in the house and club space, which is great. Moreover, he puts records out at a rapid clip, so I look forward to hearing more from him in the future.

Listen to I Told Them