Nigerian Afrobeat star Burna Boy released his seventh studio album, I Told Them…, in August. Including guest appearances from GZA, 21 Savage, British emcee Dave and more, the LP’s most notable track is easily the fourteenth song “Thanks,” featuring J. Cole. Their first-ever collaboration, “Thanks” sees Cole offset Burna’s smooth Is this the motherfucking thanks I get? hook with a fiery verse, where he raps at a choppy pace.
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After the release of I Told Them…, Burna Boy visited the Rap Radar podcast for an interview. Speaking with the show’s co-hosts Elliott Wilson and Brian “B.Dot” Miller, Burna explained how he first connected with Cole.
“I don’t really know the dynamics behind how everything happened, but somehow I end up in the studio with J. Cole and a bunch of basketball players —tall as hell,” the 32-year-old joked. “And then yeah, before any music, we were just all talking about real stuff, about life and everything really… I don’t really have conversations with people that don’t really live with me and stuff like that. I don’t have them long conversations like that. So for me, I found myself going off.”
[RELATED: J. Cole Makes Appearances on New Songs from Burna Boy and Gucci Mane]
Eventually, the conversation shifted to Cole telling his friends in the room how much Burna impresses him, in terms of his artistry and his impact. While doing so, Cole actually compared the Nigerian icon to the late Tupac, likely alluding to the aura he possesses as a beloved musician.
“He just goes, ‘Bruh, this n***a’s Tupac.’ And then I look around to see who he’s talking about, and it’s me he’s talking about!” Burna said. “Like, ‘Yeah, this n***a is — it’s like Tupac reincarnated in Africa.’ [I was like], ‘Damn, that’s kinda deep. Alright, let’s make some music.’”
However, as he described in a separate interview with Complex‘s Speedy Morman, “Thanks” did not come together during Burna and Cole’s in-person studio session. Instead, Cole sent Burna his “Thanks” verse after their session, where they ended up making an entirely different song. It’s currently unclear if that one will earn its own release.
“We did get in the studio but we didn’t make ‘Thanks’ that day,” he told Morman. “We made something else.”
Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation
