From Space-wreck to Stardom: Buju's remarkable career turnaround
Joining Burna Boy's label almost buried Buju's talent but since leaving, he has taken over charts and airwaves.
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In June 2019, a relatively unknown Daniel Benson, now popular as Buju, along with his friends, ‘cried’ and kept on mentioning Zlatan Ibile in a tweet just to get a verse from the Zanku crooner. Eventually, after few weeks had passed, Zlatan was unable to ignore the numerous tags and decided to work with Buju on a remix of Spiritual.
Soon after, another single, L’enu, followed and Buju’s charm caught a much bigger fish - Burna Boy. Buju was invited to Spaceship Records and he was more than happy to join the Ogulu family on their journey to conquer the world with music. Burna Boy’s stock has skyrocketed in the months leading to that period and with a Grammy nomination, he was the hottest African act.
However, joining Spaceship was ill-timed. Burna’s obsession with Grammy’s is well-documented. And it was because of this singular purpose that Buju lost his career momentum. Everything on Burna’s spaceship was aimed at giving the Grammy another shot. By the time they would be done, Buju was almost becoming forgotten and he knew he had to act, fast.
If he got it wrong joining Spaceship, he surely amended the misstep by leaving. Barely months after jumping ship (you felt that line?), he re-announced himself on Blaqbonez’s Bling and took over charts with another collaborative effort with Ladipoe, Feeling.
His personal singles, Outside and Testimony unsurprisingly took over the airwaves as well.
The climax of his turnaround came with his appearance on the deluxe edition of Wizkid’s Made in Lagos album. Now, we can’t deny it, Buju has all our ears.
Is Burna burnt out?
While Buju continues to grow in stature, his former boss and label mate, Burna Boy appears to be taking a breather as he announced that he won’t be releasing an album until further notice.
It’s perhaps understandable. Artistes also have burnouts. The Port Harcourt-born singer put his all into getting a Grammy award after the 2020 disappointment and he hit the bull’s eye with his most recent album, Twice as Tall. He already set the pace for his generation of singers and admittedly, there may be little he can do to top his Grammy-winning run.
Burna Boy also gives the impression he has got to a level where he is untouchable, with or without producing music. In fact, I’ve argued before that his quality of music has dropped post-Grammy - just take a critical look at Kilometre and Question.
After African Giant became Twice as Tall, is he now twice as tired?
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