In the month of August, Burna Boy finally dropped his fifth body of Work, “Twice as Tall“. The album was highly anticipated as his previous work, “African Giant” had gotten a Grammy Nomination.
“Twice as Tall” contained songs like “Wonderful, Alarm Clock, Level Up, Naughty by Nature” amongst others and Burna Boy was specific on the people he picked for collaborations.
The body of work is impressive in its entirety most especially “Monsters You Made” which featured Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martins. The song is a summary of how horrific Situations can make monsters of even Good people.
On the 20th of October, 2020, Nigeria experienced one of its darkest days. A Group of #EndSars protesters who were holding the Lekki Tollgate down were paid a horrific visit by Uniformed Armed Men who didn’t hesitate to shoot at them.
A Few hours before then, the Governor of Lagos State had placed a curfew which was to start by 4 pm. A Twitter user had posted a picture of maintenance guys who claim they were sent by the Authority to remove CCTV Cameras placed at the tollgate.
The lights and the billboard around the area were switched off. Then a massacre began. The area was chaotic as people started going live on Instagram showing what was going on.
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DJ Switch took to Instagram Live to show the situation of things, close to 200 thousand people watched as people tried to help wounded protesters.
The Shooting sparked off a series of looting and chaos that the Government is finding hard to control. Police Stations, Monarchs’ Palaces are getting burnt.
Warehouses, Shops are being looted and the media keeps referring to the perpetrators of these acts as ‘hoodlums or thugs’.
In the wise words of Seun Kuti, these aren’t hoodlums or thugs but poor people expressing their dissatisfaction in a different way. He said the way a rich man would show his anger isn’t the same way a poor man would; and he is right.
If there’s one thing the Protest has shown is that the Political elites and the Government is more interested in keeping Power than listening to the people they swore to serve.
One tool which has worked in their favor is poverty. A Poor man is just like a hungry fish given bait, he would readily enter a net just to get fed.
However, the disadvantage they never saw was that a poor man can also be a dangerous tool when enlightened. The day he realizes that he has more power over the Political Jagabans, he becomes a threat to them.
The irony of these is that a poor man fighting for his right is seen as a monster, hence the term “Hoodlum”.
Burna Boy uses “Monster You Made” as a way to pass this warning. The song which opens with a commentary by former militant, Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor-Ben summarizes the situation.
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He says;
“If the government refuse to develop the region
And continue the marginalization and injustice
The youths or the next people coming after us
I think will be more brutal than what we have done”
This statement made when he was part of the Niger-Delta Militants that terrorized the region for a while couldn’t be farther from the truth.
In the Chrous, Chris Martins taunt the ‘powers that be’ as he reveals that we are only monsters they made.
Burna in the first verse tells the sad story of how hard activism can be in Nigeria due to frustration from the Government. He also notes that we tend to use humor to mask our pain (Nigeria Twitter is a classic example).
The tone changes when he sings
“It’s like the heads of the state
Ain’t comprehending the hate
That the oppressed generate
When they’ve been working like slaves”
Political Leaders don’t see how they have built up hatred in the masses who they oppress. It’s only normal that the oppressed revolts against the oppressor.
“To get some minimum wage
You turn around and you blame
Them for their anger and rage
Put them in shackles and chains
Because of what they became
We are the monsters you made”
He mocks the Government for refusing to take accountability for their actions, instead blaming the people for fighting back.
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In verse two, he gets bolder as he calls for the boycott of what he refers to as the ‘White Man’s teachings”.
Fela in “Teacher Don’t teach me nonsense” had questioned why Nigerians should be subjected to the White Man’s teachings instead of telling their own history.
This is what Burna attempts to do as he even slams the Late Scottish Explorer, Mungo Park who is being taught in schools as the man who founded River Niger.
Technically Burna is right, River Niger had inhabitants living along its banks so why are Africans immortalizing a White man for finding the same place their ancestors were already living close to.
Burna ends the verse with a warning to greedy and manipulative leaders, that “everyday might be for the thief but one day is for the owner” and they might not survive the event if it should happen.
The outro of the song features a clip from the interview of Ghanian Writer, Ama Ata Aidoo who states that Africa hasn’t benefitted anything worthwhile from the Western Country but instead has only been infected with deadly diseases, had their crops and minerals robbed of.
The song apart from having a tight production thanks to the amazing Leriq who also produced other good songs on the album is deep scrutiny of the history we have been fed with and the corruption we have endured over time.
This is a song that serves as a prophetic warning to the rising revolution that Africa would soon face and just like the historical French Revolution of 1789, the head of the political hierarchy would be scapegoats.
Listen and enjoy;