Last Last is Burna’s most recent offering which made its entry in the most ostentatious way possible at his sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. He then performed, as the first African Artiste ever to do so, at Billboard Music Awards, to impressive reception. But away from all the glitz and the glam, how does Last Last stand to Burna’s impressive body of work? Does it measure up?

Damini Ogulu, better known by his stage name Burna Boy, has been a staple of the Nigerian, and now global, music industry. The Grammy-winning artist has delivered hit albums like Twice as Tall, which cinched him the award for Best Global Music Album.

This has, more or less, thrust him into the international spotlight, and works with global music icons such as Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, and Justin Bieber. If you were to ask Burna, he’d shrug his shoulders and say it was all in a day’s work while casually bashing barriers that have stood in the way of many other African artistes.

We have seen Burna the activist, Burna the trailblazer, Burna the award winner, Burna the young Fela of this generation but we rarely ever see Burna the human. His earlier album, Outside, gave us a glimpse of Burna as himself. This song continues that thread. It tells an overall story of heartbreaks, grief, and loss and coping with them.

It is sung in such a way that it is simply a man, chilling with his friends, and sharing stories of loss amidst drinks and laughter. On Last, Burna is having fun, and being vulnerable. The visuals that accompany this Chopstix-produced song is directed by Burna himself and samples Toni Braxton’s 2000 single, He wasn’t man enough.

This mid-tempo has a chant-like chorus with his backup sounding like a group of drunk men. In it, he talks about how an unarmed woman manipulated his love, his car crash in Lekki, and his upbringing in Port Harcourt. All of these layers over springy percussions and raw vocals. The tune is slow to mid-tempo, the kind you bounce your head to.

Where day-one fans of Burna have been loving his newer sounds, enjoying his evolution as an artist, there has been a longing recently for the honesty of Burna’s Outside. And he seems set to deliver that on his Love, Damini, set to drop in July.

Here it seems Burna is a bit more introspective. Speaking of it, he says this turning 31 without a wife and children, while at the peak of his career, is something he struggles with. We hope this Last Last is the first of a self-analysing album but ultimately as a single, it is on par with Burna’s already monumental body of work.

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

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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.