Nigerian singer-songwriter, Ọlawale Ọlọfọrọ, popularly known as Brymo, has taken a swipe at fellow Nigerian musicians, including Grammy-winning artist Burna Boy, in a recent interview with TVC.
News About Nigeria reports that Brymo did not mince words as he voiced his opinions on the state of the music industry and some of its leading figures.
In particular, he criticised Burna Boy, stating that he finds him to be ‘sleazy, cheap, very unoriginal, and very fake’.
He went on to express his belief that Burna Boy did not deserve to win a Grammy Award for his fifth studio album, ‘Twice As Tall’, and accused him of lacking originality, often relying on samples in his songs.
Furthermore, Brymo did not spare Wizkid and Davido from his critique. He referred to all three artists as ‘thieves’ who have drawn inspiration from Fela Kuti’s afrobeat legacy.
“I saw a video where he (Burna Boy) was saying he was the Jesus of Afrobeats. I think he is sleazy, he is cheap, he is a thief. Very unoriginal, very fake. Every song is a sample or a stolen slogan. Who does that? And who award you Grammy for that?
“Afrobeats is a music style, not a genre. Fela’s Afrobeat is a genre. And it is disrespectful that a new generation of musicians came and just added ‘s’ and tried to create another set of number ones.
“Wizkid is the first this, Davido this, Burna Boy. No, they all are thieves,” he said.
Brymo emphasised the importance of recognising Fela’s monumental contributions to music and the immense struggles he faced in pioneering the afrobeat genre.
“Do you know how much struggle Baba (Fela) went through to create Afrobeat? I think it is a whole big problem that we have, even in Black American music cycle. Hip-hop was called hip-hop in the 80s. Then it became rap and then trap.
“We just showed up and tried to rename what our older brothers did. While they are trying to kill us off, we are trying to kill them off. I don’t know why. There’s supposed to be continuity.”
