Burna Boy Recalls “Black African Boys” Not Being Popular At One Point

“You had to be light-skinned,” he recalled.

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Burna Boy recently visited Fresh Kiss radio where he addressed how embraced “Black African boys” are now, versus years ago when “you had to be light-skinned.”

The Afrobeats star explained a sample found in his song “City Boys,” which was taken from an Instagram video made by J Hus. In the clip, the British rapper said, “Ayo I’m not even going to lie, I used to call myself a ugly yute, but I’m not even an ugly yute. I’m sexy yute, you understand? Gyal all over the globe wanna ‘uck me, you understand?”

When asked about including the snippet in his song, Burna expressed, “I feel like he was speaking for all of us, Black African boys. There was a time in life when we weren’t popping. You had to be a light-skinned boy. Did you not have Chris Brown on your wall? Let’s be real, we weren’t popping. We were getting called all types of names. It is what it is, you know.”

Speaking to how J Hus has embraced the negative narrative by calling himself “Mr. Ugly,” the “Last Last” crooner added, “The whole narrative has changed and we now look in the mirror like, ‘Hmmmm, so the whole time they were trying to finesse us.’ We’ve always known our worth, it’s everyone else that didn’t.”

Burna elaborated on how society plays a major role in what people can start to believe about themselves.

“Even if you know it’s not true, it’s like, the fact that they keep telling you, it’s in your head,” he went on. “Whether you accept it or not, it’s like, it’s still in your head. Now, it’s about you accepting it or not. But, it’s not easy to be strong like that.”

See above.

In the comment section of the radio show’s post, users began sharing their own experiences growing up with a darker complexion than their lighter-skin counterparts.

“There was a stage people calling dark skinned men and boys BLICK and this came from our very own people. Light skinned guys were glorified but now light skinned guys are seen as feminine by the ladies,” one user wrote, before another said, “This is still a major problem in Nigeria we suffer from a severe case of colorism. It’s actually disgusting.”

Take a listen below to “City Boys” from his seventh studio album, I Told Them…, which was released back in August. The project boasts appearances from J Hus, GZA, 21 Savage, Dave, Seyi Vibez, RZA, J. Cole, and Byron Messia.

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