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Burna Boy Reveals He Recorded His First Song at Age 13 Using a Radio and Video Game Beats
Grammy Award-winning Nigerian superstar Damini Ogulu, popularly known as Burna Boy, has revealed that he recorded his first-ever song at just 13 years old, using nothing but a radio, tape recorder, and video game soundtracks.
The Afrofusion icon made this nostalgic revelation during an interview with Ebro Darden on Apple Music, where he took fans through the humble beginnings of his music career.
“The first song I ever recorded was by myself. You wouldn’t even believe it. I had a tape, a radio, and I used the beat from video games,” Burna shared.
He mentioned that the instrumentals came from popular early-2000s video games, including NBA Street Vol. II and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Using the games’ background music as beats, he would press record and freestyle into his tape recorder.
“It was one of the GTAs… I can’t remember exactly, but yeah, I was around 13,” he added.
How Burna Boy recorded his first song using beats from video games.
He was about 13 at the time. pic.twitter.com/hVVahabq1W
— @𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗷𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘆 (@OneJoblessBoy) July 16, 2025
In a related conversation on The Official UK Afrobeats Chart Show with Eddie Kadi, Burna Boy addressed backlash over his past criticism of Afrobeats, where he had claimed the genre “lacks substance.”
He offered a public apology and clarified that his statement came from a place of limited understanding at the time.
“With the knowledge I have now, I wouldn’t have made that statement. I didn’t know that Afrobeats was more of an umbrella term to help push Nigerian music as a collective,” Burna explained.
The Grammy winner’s recent reflections highlight his evolving appreciation of the genre that has brought global spotlight to African artists, himself included.