April 30, 2021 | 3:34pm ET
Nigerian superstar Burna Boy is back with his first solo song of 2021, “Kilometre”.
Via Okay Africa, BB unveiled the single during an appearance on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music 1, at which time he also teased a new album in 2021. “I’m definitely planning to drop my next album this year,” he said. “Especially at the same time I dropped the last one. I’m trying to do that as long as I can.”
He was referring to 2020’s Twice as Tall, which came out in August and was one of our favorite albums of the year. If we’re only three or four months away from another Burna Boy meal, then “Kilometre” is a perfect aperitif. Over a sun-baked beat, he celebrates how far he’s come and how stylishly he’s done it. “I give you the gist,” he raps. “When was the last time somebody did it like this?/ Too much ice on my bomboclat wrist/ That’s why everybody hating on me like Chris.”
Related Video
As he told Zane Lowe, he wrote the song at a beach house in Ghana and actually brought it to a Ghanian nightclub the very same day. He said,
“It’s really me talking about how far I’ve come, I’ve come a long way. At the same time, just having fun with it. When the song drops, start running around, wherever you go. Just start running around. It doesn’t need an explanation. We had a retreat beach house slash just paradise place in Ghana where I was working, and one just came off. That’s one of the ones that just came off from that. I actually, took it to the club that day. We got one.”
“Kilometre” comes with a music video that shows Burna Boy doing a bit of running himself. He also plays golf on the bed of a semi-truck, practices social distancing by flying alone on a private jet, and dances in the streets in a wide variety of eye-catching fits. Check out the song below.