Why is Burnaboy Hates So Much?

Fact or Fiction?

Right from the time Damini Ogulu popularly known as Burnaboy burst into the Nigerian Music scene in 2012 with his hit song ‘’Like to Party’’, there has never been a doubt about his musical ingenuity which has grown in leaps and bounds towering far above his peers, and becoming arguably the most consequential artist of an entire generation.

So why is someone like him hated? Is he really hated or this is purely a false perception?

Why would someone who has risen from the street of portharcourt city, Nigeria, to becoming a global star be hated in his home country?

Burnaboy has personally brought joy and pride to Nigeria with music which is relatively even more politically conscious than that of his peers.
For someone, who was inspired by Afrobeat Legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, it is not surprising that he has followed his footstep and has risen to global superstardom over a period of 10 years and he is just 31 years.

Is he really hated?

The answer is Yes and No but it not that simple. Burnaboy’s perceived hatred by the generality of Nigerians is fictional.

However, his brand as an artist has been at the receiving end of what many might consider hateful.




Here are the top 8 reasons why Burnaboy is perceived to be hated:


1. Stan Wars:

There is a constant battle for supremacy among the fans of the biggest musicians in Nigeria. This has largely shaped the perception that Burnaboy is really hated because of ‘ ‘banters’ by rival artists' fanbases in Nigeria.

 The Nigerian music conversation, especially on the internet, is dominated by Fans and stans of Various artists including Burnaboys, Wizkids’, and Davidos’ among others, thanks to the poor and deplorable level of music journalism in Nigeria.

Burnaboys fans are called Outsiders, Wizkid’s fans are called Wizkid FC or FC and Davido’s fans are called 30 Billion Gang or 30BG- These three are by far the most dominant fanbases in the Nigerian music scene.

Wizkid Fc is considered the most notorious because of their tendency to pick fights with other fanbases. In their ploy to defend their favourite artist-Wizkid- they make all sorts of social media posts (fact and fiction) just to prove that Burnaboy is not as great as Wizkid.

Burnaboy fans (Outsiders) also respond to this social media post with their rebuttals but it has far less impact because Wizkid Fc seems to have a far larger number of members.

What I find really fascinating is that these rival fans throw banters at each other artists on a daily basis, sometimes going overboard, without blocking each other. Some of them are even close friends in real life.

So do they really hate Burnaboy? I don’t think so. Most of these fans don’t even believe some of their assertions and would go on to state contradictions later.

For most of these fans, like in football where fans support their teams, they have a sense of duty to defend their favourite artist by putting down others.



2. Nigeria’s peculiar Musical taste buds:

In the early years of Burnaboy's career, he was more of a Reggae/dance hall artiste until he fully transitioned into Afrofusion in 2016/2017.

Unfortunately for Burnaboy, Reggae is not a popular genre of music in Nigeria, its beloved by many but not as much as indigenous Afrobeat which has been on a  meteoric rise since the early 2000s.

For this reason, the African Giant struggled to establish himself as an A-list artiste in Nigeria because of their preferential taste for a percussion base tune.
In fact, some people will claim, Burnaboy didn’t ‘blow’ till 2018, but that is not true because he has had a series of hits song before then including Like to party, Yawa Dey, Soke,  body to body, Pree me among others, all across three major projects.

So when foreigners finally got hold of Burnaby's song, they fell in love with him since then.

This has been described by many as hatred of Burnaboy’s craft seeing how long it took him to become an A-list in Nigeria despite being a hugely talented artist- probably the best on the continent

3. Emergence in the Industry:

Burnaboy started singing in the late 2000s in Portharcourt Nigeria before moving to Lagos in 2011. He had his first hit single in 2012 and has not stopped since then.
However, it took him another 6 years to finally break and establish himself both locally and internationally because his talents were at variance with the level of success he had achieved in the early years.
He struggled to replicate the success recorded by young artists like Wizkid, and Davido in their early years
Many assumed he struggled because he was not loved by the industry or was being discriminated against. But this is hardly the truth because he actually has a lot of successful hit songs then but lagged behind because of his mediocre management structure.



4. Victim of his own Success:

Since Burnaboy broke into the international music scene with ‘Ye’ off the ‘’Outside Album’’ in 2018 he has not looked back since then.
He has since released three more albums- African Giant, Twice as Tall and Love Damini,- All of which have been nominated for Grammy.

He is the first contemporary Nigerian Artist whose album would be nominated for a Grammy. He also won the BET award 3 years in a row- 2019, 2020, 2021.

He has had musical features with the best musicians around the world including Ed Sheeran, Khalid, Stormy, and Polo G among others.

This has unsurprisingly attracted jealousy from some of his colleagues and rival fan bases. But the generality of Nigerians is proud of all his achievements.


5. Public Scandals:

Damini has never pretended to be a stereotypical good boy but somehow he has managed to find himself somewhere around trouble if not making trouble himself.

His first scandal was in 2013 when lost the Next Rated award at Nigeria’s most prestigious award show- The headies. It was reported that he stormed out of the venue because he thought he has been cheated. Rumour has it that he is still angry with the organisers of the Headies and has never acknowledged their nomination

It was also reported that Burnaboy had once fired his biological mother as his manager. In a culture where humility and respect are considered sacred, especially towards elders, firing his mum was unacceptable ( he has since rehired her)

Another scandal was reported in the news that he alleged got into an altercation with Davido at a club in Ghana and he physically assaulted his colleague.

Other scandal includes his public spat with Ghana’s dancehall artiste, Shattawale, where they both made horrible allegations of sexual assault against each other.

All these and more have shaped Burnaboy’s public perception at least locally.


6. Poor Public Relations Management:

Every successful artiste needs a very sound public relations team to help with branding and image management. But burnaboy seemed to have suffered seriously in this area. Either he does not have a good public relations team or they have a bad strategy because they have done a very poor job.
For most of the scandal, Burnaboy has been involved with, his management has hardly ever released a press statement or made a strategic move to redeem the artiste's Image.
Most recently, Burnaboy was allegedly involved in an s shooting incident at a club in Lagos Nigeria. The artiste only responded with a sarcastic tweet and his management made no press releases.
I consider this to be the biggest problem with Burnaboy public perception. People hold on to some of this scandal and try to use it to put him down.


7. Predictability: obsession with validation:

Damini Ogulu is a genius by all standards. He proved himself repeatedly and he prides himself as the African Giant.

While all the above may be true, it seems his personal perception of self is not enough, he needs external validation from others.
His most public show of this was when he famously lashed out at the Coachella for writing his name in small font calling himself ‘’An African Giant’’. He went on to name his next album African Giant and the name has stuck since then.

Some other times, the outcome is not as positive. He would get into a petty arguments with fans of rival artists or even attempt t correct some of his musical statistics.

Wizkid FC have notoriously exploited this by constantly going at him with all sorts of tweets, even though they may not mean it


8. Relationship with other Artists:

Many artists who have worked with burnaboy have described him to be an amazing and professional artist while others have had reservations about his attitude.
The worst display of his relationship with fellow artiste was the incident between him and Reekado Banks who had offered to take up the Musical challenge Burnaboy posted online.

Burnaboy ridiculed him by turning Reekado banks down.
It's unclear what their relationship is like in real life but that encounter on Twitter left fans really divided

There is hardly anything particularly unique about Burnaboys experience with the fans in his home country, Nigeria. Wizkid, Davido and other top artists have to endure trolling, insults, and fake rumours as well.


What do you think?

Source: https://burnaboy-library.space/why-is-burnaboy-hated-so-much/

I don’t think he even cares ... hate him or love him

When you do big things, people will beef and hate you

If you are confident and/or rich in nigeria,you will be hated