Burna Boy's 'No Sign of Weakness' fulfills his rock star dreams

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Burna Boy's 'No Sign of Weakness' fulfills his rock star dreams

2025-07-10 00:15 Last Updated At：00:31

NEW YORK (AP) — While classmates dreamed of becoming teachers, doctors and professional athletes, Burna Boy was clear on his future aspirations.

“They would hand out the papers and the question would be, ‘What you wanna be?’ … I’d write ‘rock star,’” said the Afrobeats giant. “One of my teachers asked me, ‘What do rock stars do?’ I didn’t really know what to say.”

These days, the Grammy winner’s music talks for him. Fresh off becoming the first African artist to sell out Paris’ iconic Stade de France in April, Burna Boy has been on an incredible run, and hopes it continues with his new album out Friday.

“’No Sign of Weakness’ is really like a celebration of the fact that that I’m still here throughout all these years and all the trials and tribulations,” explained the Nigerian artist. “I decided to intentionally make sure everyone on this project could comfortably and genuinely say they’re a rock star.”

Following 2023’s Grammy-nominated “I Told Them…,” this project includes blockbuster features, like legendary Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, country hitmaker Shaboozey and hip-hop heavyweight Travis Scott.

Writing on all 16 tracks, Burna relied on his standard successful creation process: record constantly, choose some songs from his vault that fit his decided theme, and then craft the project around them. He's already dropped “Bundle by Bundle,” “Update,” which features an interpolation of Soul II Soul’s classic “Back To Life,” “Sweet Love” and “TaTaTa” featuring Scott.

Music from Africa has exploded globally in recent years. Regions in Africa and the Middle East reached double-digit gains in music revenue last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. In 2023, the group reported that sub-Saharan Africa was the fastest-growing music industry, with artists like Burna, Davido and Wizkid leading the way, along with Tyla, who’s spread South Africa’s Amapino sound.

“I feel blessed. I also feel great responsibility … I’m blamed for everything, most especially, things I couldn’t possibly be responsible for,” said Burna, alluding to demands in Nigeria. “I don’t vote, and I’ve never done it. But now, it’s to the point where even that: if I don’t vote, because I don’t say I’ll vote for this person or vote for that person, it’s a problem.”

But that weight of responsibility isn’t felt on his eighth studio album. “Dem Dey,” a tongue-in-cheek bop referencing his gossipy social media scandal with a Nigerian influencer which amused fans, is sure to crowd dance floors, while he and Jagger formed a dynamic duo on the Afrobeat-rock hybrid “Empty Chairs.”

“That’s how I see the future of our music … music that’s supposed to last, music that you can perform forever,” said Burna, who collaborated with the 81-year-old by trading ideas through WhatsApp after being connected by supermodel Naomi Campbell. “That’s where I want to be when I’m that age.”

For his country-infused “Change Your Mind” with Shaboozey, the pair plead for second chances after souring relationships.

“Here’s an Igbo boy from the eastern part of Nigeria who comes to America as a young guy,” said Burna of the “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” singer. “He’s flourishing in the country world. If I’m not proud of that, then I don’t think I can be proud of anything in life.”

The Afrobeats superstar, currently featured on the soundtrack for the blockbuster “F1" movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, hopes the genre continues to thrive and not become a fad. But while the female artists are united, the top men have experienced friction in the past.

“We need to figure how to make our diversities into an advantage instead of a disadvantage, and that goes across — not just for Nigeria," said Burna, whose grandfather managed Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti. "It goes for everything Black and African, because the only thing we always lack is strong organization.”

While some artists have expressed ideas on unification, Burna Boy is cautious.

“When we’re talking about uniting ... We’re talking about people who actually can help matters,” he said. “I don’t want to discuss with people that it’s just going to end up a discussion, and there’s not going to be any action.”

For the moment, he’s pressing forward. The “Last Last” artist launched his world tour this week with North American dates beginning in November. It features a circular stage, providing fans an equally enjoyable musical experience — although he’s certain he’ll enjoy it more.

“This is going to sound selfish as hell — but I definitely have more fun than everybody … when I die, I want to go to a stage in Heaven,” said Burna. “Every time I watch myself perform, I see a big smile on my face that I never see anywhere else.”

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.

Anti-ICE protesters assemble across the US after shootings in Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis Saturday to protest the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer there and the shooting of two protesters in Portland, Oregon, as Minnesota leaders urged demonstrators to remain peaceful.

The Minneapolis gathering was one of hundreds of protests planned in towns and cities across the country over the weekend. It came in a city on edge since the killing of Renee Good on Wednesday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

“We’re all living in fear right now,” said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest Saturday. “ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that’s unacceptable.”

On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people turned violent as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested. He faulted “agitators that are trying to rile up large crowds.”

“This is what Donald Trump wants,” Frey said of the president who has demanded massive immigration enforcement efforts in several U.S. cities. “He wants us to take the bait.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz echoed the call for peace.

“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities is its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation. Trump's administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers.

Connor Maloney said he was attending the Minneapolis protest to support his community and because he's frustrated with the immigration crackdown.

“Almost daily I see them harassing people,” he said. “It’s just sickening that it’s happening in our community around us.”

Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to attend a protest in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday because of the “horrifying” killing of Good in Minneapolis.

“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”

Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states.

In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups organized the demonstration that began in a park about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where the 37-year-old Good was shot on Wednesday. Marchers carried signs calling for ICE to leave and voiced support for Good and immigrants.

A couple of miles away, just as the demonstration began, an Associated Press photographer witnessed heavily armed officers — at least one in Border Patrol uniform — approach a person who had been following them. Two of the agents had long guns out when they ordered the person to stop following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning.”

The agents eventually drove onto the interstate without detaining the driver.

Protests held in the neighborhood have been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted on Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case, the car was left in park and in another case a dog was left in the vehicle.

He said immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that 911 callers have been alerting authorities to ICE activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.

The Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.

Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of another operation that started last month and was expected to last until February.

Three congresswomen from Minnesota attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning and were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.

U.S, Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.

“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Craig said after being turned away.

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that limit congressional visits to immigration facilities. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by 12 members of Congress who sued in Washington, D.C. to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities.

Associated Press writers Allen Breed in Durham, North Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed.