Burna Boy reckons with the legacy of British colonial rule over Nigeria — and marks the country’s independence day, which took place on October 1, 1960 — in his new video for “Another Story.” The track appeared in July on Burna Boy’s African Giant album.
“Another Story” provides listeners with an immediate jolt of historical context. “To understand Nigeria, you need to appreciate where it came from,” a voiceover intones. “In 1900, Britain officially assumed responsibility for the administration of the whole of what we now know as Nigeria from the Niger Company… the British Government paid 865,000 pounds, a huge amount in 1900. So let’s establish a simple truth: The British didn’t travel halfway across the world just to spread democracy. Nigeria started off as a business deal for them between a company and a government.”
After this introduction, Burna Boy introduces a slick beat from Kel P — the same producer behind the pre-album single “On the Low.” In the video for “Another Story,” children raise weapons aloft and a crowd destroys a burning car. Burna Boy takes stock of the action from horseback, while the Ghanaian rapper M.anifest shows up to deliver a sharp verse decrying inequality and propaganda.
Burna Boy has been streamed over 110 million times in the U.S. this year. “One thing that’s constant [in my career] is growth,” the singer told Rolling Stone in July. “It’s not an up and down thing. I climbed every step. I don’t skip steps — I’m too heavy to skip steps.”