The last couple of years has only proved that Burna Boy is by a mile or two better than fellow compatriots Wizkid and Davido.
As far as music and artistry go, artistes will always be compared to their contemporaries or older generations of colleagues. The comparison isn’t just an issue among fans of rival Nigerian musicians, comparing artistes is something we all love to do, it everywhere.
In 2020 people still, debate who is a better rapper between Nas and Jay-Z, oh wait people still pit two dead rappers 2Pac and B.I.G against each other and the comparisons never end. Sometimes it serves as material for banter but most importantly the strengths and highlights of these people are rolled out and applauded.
Right here in Nigeria, Wizkid as about the biggest cult followership, followed by Davido and then most recently Burna Boy has doubled his organic followers in the past few years. Every day these sections of fans hail their respective idols to the high heavens rolling out their achievements and best moments.
However, in the past three years, Burna Boy has taken the lead among his contemporaries displacing Davido and Wizkid to second and third place in no particular order.
This is a pointer to all the times Burna Boy proved he was in deed better than Wizkid and Davido.
Talent
Burna Boy is a bag of talent any day and time and he is more talented than the other guys without a doubt. Lyrically Burna Boy tops them both, talk about versatility he wins that too. As far as you want to stretch the meaning of talent the Port Harcourt born singer shows more lustre than Wizkid and Davido.
Burna Boy can make party jams and can flip the switch to make protest music. He is the only one who makes conscious music among the three of them.
Keeping It Real
Of the three Nigerian artistes mentioned herein, Burna Boy keeps it a 100 percent always. He is still the same arrogant guy we all love to hate, he still has that attitude only this time it is well packaged. The same guy we knew from the early days of his career is still the same one today who proclaims himself the African Giant. The only difference is that he now has a global audience. Although the ‘Ye’ crooner has since gone international he hasn’t given in to any pressure to change his sound in other to gain more international appeal. He has worked with Jorja Smith, Beyonce and most recently Sam Smith and he hasn’t lost his African vibe.
Consistency
Wizkid is a great guy and same can be said about Davido, however, since 2018 Burna Boy has not missed the bullseye till date. From 2018 – 2020 Burna Boy has released three Grammy deserving albums ‘Outside‘, ‘African Giant‘ and now ‘Twice As Tall‘. Within this period he has actually covered any leads the other guys had over him and perhaps outdoing them at the moment. He has made himself the most bankable music star amongst the top three. At this point the ‘On the Low’ crooner is not a procrastinator, he says it, he keeps to his word, unlike the rest.
Albums
One way Burna Boy has shown his dominance over his contemporaries his with his album releases. Three albums in three years and the quality has not diminished in any way, he is the only Nigerian artiste with this level of intensity in recent times. ‘Outside’ unlocked that international recognition for Burna Boy, ‘African Giant’ pushed the already existing international cred to a higher level. One of the fun stories around the ‘African Giant’ album has to be him dragging Coachella for using small fonts to spell his name, we all saw that. He also got an independent Grammy nod for the album too at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.
With ‘Twice As Tall’ the singer had the number 1 album worldwide on Apple Music within 24 hours of release. A big boost was having Diddy as Co-Executive producer with extra production from Anderson Paak and Timbaland. Already this one is destined for greatness by critics.
It is only the dreadlock spotting singer whose gives you an actual album experience when you listen to his LP. The songs are well curated to take listeners through a journey to experience sonic eargasm not some random compilation of recorded tracks.
One thing that has put Burna Boy above his peers is the fact that his PR team is word class. His entire management has been able to smoothen the musician who is a bit too rough around the edges. The folks at BukiHQ Media have finessed the PR thing for Burna Boy which has seen their client grace some of the biggest TV shows in America etc. The theme, art direction and message around his albums are well executed without a miss. The other guys have large followership but are yet to finesse PR like Burna Boy. How does an arrogant, brash and conceited artiste get so much love from both local and international media? Those handling his public relations know the business.
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