A few weeks ago, the Nigerian Afro fusion artiste, Burna Boy, whose hybrid black-music style has exploded in the past few years, released a truly great album called African Giant. On that LP, Burna Boy sang in at least three different languages drew in artists from across Africa and across the African diaspora to fuse a ton of different genres — Afrobeats, dancehall, rap, R&B, various different forms of African pop music — into one whole. And last night, he sat down with fellow “African giant” Trevor Noah on The Daily Show.
During his interview with Noah, Burna Boy told a story about the first time he met Noah, watching the man get mobbed while getting off of a boat in South Africa five years ago. (It’s a helpful reminder that Noah isn’t just one more name in the American cable late-night rotation.) When Noah asked him to descibe his music, Burna Boy came up with an extended analogy about a pizza. And Burna Boy also told the story about his album title — an outgrowth of the moment where Noah saw his name halfway down this year’s Coachella poster and got pissed off on Twitter.
Burna Boy also performed on the show, doing a medley of the African Giant tracks “Ye” and “Anybody.” In doing so, he displayed some of the charisma that’s made him a star around the world. Watch the interview and the performance below.
