When Buju’s biography comes out in book form, one chapter will be titled How Important is a Record Label to a Newbie. He was signed by Burna Boy’s Spaceship Records on April 16th 2020. A few months down the line, he decided not to renew his contract when it expired.
And the questions remain: Do you need a record label? Can you ‘make it’ without getting signed? According to a report in The Economist, several big-name musicians bypassed the record labels altogether. Under Burna Boy, Buju wasn’t a big name. Guess the student was fast becoming the master, right?
“It’s more of life taking its course,” he said.
“I appreciate the position I was in. It helped me to see things from a different perspective. I was working with my idol. I could watch him record, and he could watch me and tell me how to adapt. It was a learning process. I also saw that I could also do it on my own. Being under a label, I realised I can’t decide for myself.
“I can’t wake up one morning and make a creative decision. You have to ask four or five people about it. Then I realised that couldn’t work for me. It was coming from a place of trying to handle everything. You have the power to make your music what it should be. Music has its way of connecting people, and I wanted to do that.”
But what happened to all the fame and glamour associated with getting signed? Do musicians not want the goodies connected with record labels anymore? Buju explains further.
“When I recorded ‘Feeling’, I was about to finish my contract, and it was about how I liked the way I was feeling for the start of a new chapter,” he said.
“Not everything was right, but that little sense of feeling was great. I loved it. Didn’t want to drop it because I was still under my contract. I didn’t want to ask anyone either, so I dropped it when that had ended. And it was the best decision I could’ve made.”
We figure ‘time will tell’ is on the mind of Burna Boy!
We present Buju’s biography.
Buju: Birth
Daniel Benson, better known as Buju, was born on May 19th 1997, in Lagos. Although he’s from Akwa Ibom state, he grew up in Gbagada, Lagos. He later moved to Mowe, Ogun State. We know little about his parents or siblings, but we know that his mother lost the battle with cancer while he was still young. And that he speaks Yoruba fluently.
“I’m not Yoruba, but I was staying in Gbagada, and everyone was speaking Yoruba, and I really didn’t want to be confused,” he said.
His association with the name Buju has a somewhat ‘confusing’ history. It started with his father’s love for the Jamaican reggae dancehall musician Buju Banton. This naturally snowballed, and it influenced his direction into this type of music. Bob Marley and other reggae musicians cemented his love for music at a young age.
According to him, the term Buju is affection for anyone ‘chubby’. And he wasn’t skinny back then and couldn’t escape being called chubby. The name Buju also arose from a poem he wrote at a young age to which the meaning “Beauty Underneath Just Understood” was born.
There must have been a misunderstanding somewhere because he soon realized the name Buju was used by another musician. He then switched to BNXN, which is a creative tweak of his first name, Benson. By the way, BNXN is pronounced ‘Benson’. Please, don’t ask us how’s that possible. We are no phonologists.
However, this change of stage name wouldn’t have been necessary if he had stuck to a name back in junior secondary school.
“At the time, I was bearing the name Drizzle,” he said.
“It was a sort of corny name because, at the time, I used to bed-wet, and I used to rap, and niggas were feeling me. I wanted to call myself Drizzy, but that’s Drake’s name, so I stuck with Drizzle.”
We shall stick to Buju in this biography.
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Buju: Education
Buju went to Emerald Schools at Ifako-Gbagada, Lagos. The school comprises nursery, primary, and secondary arms. So, we reckon Buju went through the ranks there. He has a first degree in Theatre Arts from Babcock university.
Buju’s Music Career
Can you imagine life without music? No soothing lullabies or romantic serenades. Zero lively pop songs or stirring country music. No inspirational melodies or confrontational afro beats. Most would consider that a dull and unappealing prospect. Buju would consider it the same way, too.
Music has been a constant thing in his life since secondary school. He was always writing lyrics, joining his church’s choir, and rapping while at the university.
“I used to sing for my elders growing up,” he said.
“I knew every song that was loved. They would make me sing songs, and I would do it. Everyone loved it as well. I was really fun-loving, and I wanted to be happy.”
Rap and afro-fusion made him happy, so he turned to J Hus and Burna Boy remotely for guidance. The latter took it a notch further.
“Burna reached out, and we linked up. It was a big highlight in my life meeting my idol,” he said.
“He jumped on the remix of L’Enu, and we shot the video, which he paid for. He told me he heard L’Enu in the club and told the DJ to play it like over three times because it made him feel like he was floating. It’s still one of my most surreal experiences.”
Before then, he had had a dreamlike work experience with Zlatan. Initially, he wasn’t confident he could secure a relatively bigger musician for one of his songs. But his friends kept pushing him to reach out to Zlatan.
When they finally met, a collaboration was agreed upon. And it gave birth to Spiritual, a successful hit that went viral on multiple streaming platforms.
The creation of this hit track started with a Steph.
“Steph is my producer, who I’ve been working with since University. He’s made most of my records. He sent me a beat that was titled End of 2018, and I tried to record on it right away [but nothing happened], then later on in the year, he played the beat again, and I recorded Spiritual,” he said.
“After I’m done, my friends keep hyping me saying ‘Zlatan would be perfect for the record’, and I’m like, how do I even get Zlatan money? We don’t even have the same sound, but they kept pushing me.
“So, I record a video of them adding Zlatan-like ad-libs to the song, and I put out the video on Twitter, which goes viral, and people tag Zlatan on Twitter and Instagram. Mind you, this is very organic cause I don’t like forcing my music on people. And I was an internet sensation the first time with Commander, so I wasn’t expecting another stroke of luck.”
After a month of consistent tagging, Zlatan ‘caved in’. He reposted the video and said he was ready to be part of it.
“I text him and say thanks. He replies saying, ‘My fans are hard, and I should never lose them’. That’s how the song was born. He didn’t collect a dime for me. It just happened. The song just went on and on. That song opened up my year.
“Zlatan was the most supportive artist I’ve worked with because he’ll come for shows I’m doing. Even though they didn’t pay him to be there, he will always come, and it was always chaotic.”
Music critics reckon his best collaboration was with Wizkid in Mood. His ability to make any track unique while holding the audience ‘captive’ is all one expects from a live show. But then, how best can one describe the sound of Buju?
A powerful vocal range with a sweet undertone? Is a tune playfully travelling through a melodic and rhythmic production? The concert was sold out. And he recalls how it all started.
“It was a random night at about 10 pm, and I was going through my messages, and Wizkid texted me… I have to read it out because it is mind-blowing even now. He said, ‘My G, link up for studio tomorrow’. And I was like, “Rahh, it’s a lie”, so I checked the account, and it was verified!” he said.
You are eager to know how he responded, right? He didn’t respond. That’s not true. He did.
“I told him if I don’t come, I’m unbelievable,” he said.
“Then he sent me his number, and I linked him the next day, and he was telling me about my song Confident and the video. It was so chaotic. We recorded four songs that day, and after we recorded Mood about a week later, he called me, and he was like, you have to re-record it.
But I had lost my voice and waited a few days to record and send it back to him. When I did, he said, “Bruhhhhh… this is too much! This song sounds like s3x.”
Sounds like s3x? We don’t know about that!
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Buju’s Songs
In February 2018, he released his first song, Catch a Vibe. The same year, he dropped his second song, A Day in Lagos. This gave him some recognition on Twitter and SoundCloud. Two years later, he was signed by Burna Boy’s Spaceship Records. A remix of his tune, L’enu featuring Burna Boy, was his debut track under the label. In 2019, he released his first EP.
Here’s his discography.
A Day in Lagos (2018)
Catch a Vibe (2018)
Aje (2018)
Balance It (2018)
L’Enu (2019)
Spiritual featuring Zlatan Ibile (2019)
Commander (2019)
L’Enu featuring Burna Boy (2020)
Feeling Buju and Ladipo (2021)
Outside (2021)
Sorry I’m Late EP (2021)
SEE: Yakata: Portable and manager fall while performing on stage
Buju’s Song Mp3 download
Gone is the era of phonograph records, steel wire, reel-to-reel tape, compact cassette tape, and compact discs. Music buff, don’t miss all that. Digital audio files of Buju’s songs are available via Mp3 download. We highly recommend Spiritual and his new song, Gwagwalada.
Buju’s Awards
Since beginning his musical career, he has won two major awards. They are:
2020 – Rookie of the Year Award at the City People Entertainment Awards
2020 – Headies Next Rated Award
Buju’s Net worth
Buju is quite new in the industry, so his net worth is not yet mind-blowing. It’s estimated at $305,000. He makes his money from performance fees, streaming sites, YouTube channels, endorsements, and investments.
Buju’s House
He lives in a luxury apartment in Lekki, Lagos. It’s a rented apartment.
Buju’s Cars
He got his first car, a Mercedes-Benz, in 2021. Buju bought it to celebrate the release of his EP. In 2022, he got himself a brand-new Bentley.
“I got my apartment, and I got a car. That was the most expensive,” he said.
“I had to reward myself. I’ve come from not having anything at all to finally putting out music for myself to this.”
Controversy
In 2021, Buju was in the middle of a domestic violence scandal. A medical doctor, simply called Dr Amira, accused him of infidelity, manipulation, and domestic abuse. They had dated for 16 months, and she took to her Instagram to say it all.
“I honestly loved him to the extent that I paid for most of the clothes he wears and the food he eats through his manager, Tomiwa Agbaje, as his label doesn’t fund him. But what do I get in return? He cheats on me and assaults me at the slightest provocation,” she wrote.
Mum was the word from the usually loquacious Buju.
His feud with fellow musician Ruger had a life of its own on social media. They have since kissed and made up.
Conclusion
In a few years’ time, Buju’s biography will be rewritten to cover the giant strides this musician, songwriter, producer, and performer would have made in his career. By then, a new stage name may have replaced BNXN. It’s pronounced Benson. And, yes, don’t ask us how a vowel-less ‘word’ now has consonants.
