Burna Boy new release, Whiskey, is a solid release. Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, stage name Burna Boy, if you’re not familiar with this name at this point in Afrobeats, Nigerian music, and African music on the worldwide stage, you might be living under a rock. Actually, a rock would still not be remote enough to hide away from the massive influence his music has had in both Nigeria and the world over the last decade.

Burna Boy is a musician Nigerians love and love to hate. With the release of his sixth mammoth studio album, Love, Damini, Burna attempts to get up close and personal with his fans. While Burna has had his share of controversy this year and has been bedeviled with bad press and some eyebrow-raising incidents in his career, his talent is undeniable and he knows it. This is why in its entirety, Love, Damini is a pretty stellar album.

Burna Boy – Whiskey (audio). Credit: YouTube

While Burna touted Love, Damini as his most personal album to date and he does have a few heartfelt songs on the album, most notably his final track where he admits to being egotistical and often failing to listen to his friends and family. It often felt like Burna was not being as honest as he initially claims to be and one of such tracks is Whiskey.

Whiskey begins with a monologue of a woman speaking pidgin English, decrying the widely reported Rivers State capital, Port Harcourt black soot problem. One that has caused environmental concerns across the nation with people literally waking up to find their cars covered in black soot, a byproduct of illegally and poorly refining petroleum product(s) from crude oil in mushroom refineries. Burna, being born and raised in Port Harcourt, set the stage for putting a spotlight on the issue only to leave his listeners hanging as he falls into completely different rhetoric, seeming to forget the issue he started with…

Because of oil and gas, my city so dark

Pollution make the air turn black

Every man have to stay on guard

…gives the listeners a glimmer of hope that perhaps the issue hasn’t been forgotten. But that is the only time it is actually addressed, making it come across as an afterthought than anything, which is a tad disappointing. It feels almost like a deliberate deception and an attempt to profit off an existential challenge only to instead use it as a catchy gimmick for an otherwise good song.

It is ironic because Burna boy himself has accused Nigerians, especially the youths, of doing nothing to fight societal ills Nigeria is plagued with, while seemingly misusing an opportunity to do the same thing.

Despite the dissonance in the narrative, Whiskey isn’t at all a bad song once the listener looks past its performative-ness with bouncy beats reminiscent of Fela, blended with beautiful saxophone in a brass-led almost orchestral backdrop that is a good frame for the slow delivery and easy to sing lyrics about a man pouring whiskey.

Whiskey might have been a bit of a letdown but only because Burna gave some high expectations, to begin with. It is still one of the standout stars of the album and a song with a very high replay value. If you like Jazz and Afro-fusion, this is a must-listen.

Didi Dan-Asisah is an art enthusiast and critic. She lives in Lagos.

Lyrics

[Intro]
Port Harcourt resident, they are not breathing fresh air
My people make una dey see am
Say, “Port Harcourt resident, they are not breathing fresh air”
So when you wake in the morning, you go cough
You go cough black soothe
The cars, if you see the way the cars
Them go dey black everywhere
Curtain everywhere, na so everyday na him
We dey mop glass, every day

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.