Burna Boy dropped off his new song “Big 7” with a lot of fanfare on Friday, and that buzz translates into streams giving him another career milestone.
“Big 7” is the latest single from the African Giant, who once again proves he got the Midas touch. The song earned 841,000 streams in the first 24 hours of its release on Spotify, beating the previous record for an Afrobeats song debut held by Davido’s “Over Dem,” which earned 789,000 streams on his debut in March this year.
The song’s music video has since received 3.5 million views on YouTube in the first three days after its release. The clip, which was filmed in New York, saw the Nigerian artist paying homage to the late Virgil Abloh. A few of New York’s legends made a cameo in the video, including rapper Busta Rhymes. The singer also announced his new album, I Told Them, is coming soon. He shared a trailer for the album showing clips from his touring and conversations with RZA and Ebro Darden.
“There’s always something bigger than me, that was me,” he told Ebro.
“Big 7” is the first single off the highly anticipated album, which is due for release on August 24th.
While the Afrobeats genre continues to surge in popularity in recent years, Burna Boy has been the most dominant artist in the genre this year, setting several records and career milestones from touring and music consumption. Earlier this month, the singer created history as the first African artist to sell out a U.S. Stadium concert by himself after a packed crowd came out to see him perform at the Citi Field in Queens, NY, on July 8th.
Following his stint in New York, Burna Boy jetted to Jamaica for a week-long birthday celebration, including a beach party that saw artists like Beenie Man, Teejay, Skeng, and more performing at the event. The African Giant also visited Sizzla Kalonji at his Judgement Yard compound before shooting a music video for his new collab with Byron Messia, “Talibans II.”
Burna Boy also stirred some controversies on the “Talibans II” single when he revealed he bought Jada Kingdom a Birkin bag. He has been rumored to be dating the Jamaican singer after she was spotted wearing a Domini chain and partying with him in Europe. Nevertheless, the Jamaican singer declined to comment on the controversy in an interview at Reggae Sumfest last week.
