We really should have known.

Burna’s first album announced his intent very clearly: he wanted to be greater than any other artiste that had come before him and he wanted to do it strictly on his own terms.

You see, we were still rocking songs like Dami Duro by Davido, Kedike by Chidinma, Ara by Brymo and a host of Olamide songs when this fresh song with a different voice and a colourful video came out. To be honest, I was never sure what the entire lyrics were until later but I did get a sense that the artiste was convinced he was making sense.

“Chilin’ with my dark shades on/Like I can’t see you/But you know sey me fancy you…” – Like To Party was the song that brought the Burn and not only was his voice absolutely unique, he seemed to be more interested in creating music that would last than just music for the moment.

Olamide had first been with Toni Payne before breaking out. Wizkid, who also had a big night yesterday from his Beyonce collaboration, was still at this time very close to Banky W and EME. May D was comfortable being a side-kick to P-Square and D Prince was like a footnote in Don Jazzy’s story.

But here was this guy Burna, with Aristokrat Records which had never produced any artiste before him and his first single was a song that featured nobody else.

The only other people who tried to do that in the same year 2012 – were O.B.O., Chidinma, Iyanya and maybe Lynxx. With some of the others, we could argue back then that their father’s money was behind the push or that some music television show had given them their first push, but not Burna.

Who was this guy?

Then he hit us with Tonight – dropping his famous byline “They call me…Burna Boy” and expressing the full scale and tenor of his voice – adlibbing with ease and scatting in a way that made his voice most unforgettable: this guy was not playing and wanted us to remember his voice. If Like To Party showed his lyrical prowess, Tonight was about the voice.

On an alum featuring 2face, Timaya, M.I., Olamide and Reminisce, the unforgettable songs were the ones Burna sang alone. (My personal fave from that album though would always be his collaboration with Wizkid – Jah Love is Real).

Run My Race took a trip to the past – shot right at the Afrikan Shrine, Burna was staking his claim to the music throne in Nigeria, not from any of the contemporaries but from Fela himself. Yawa Dey was the nod to Daddy Showkey with its massive street sound and ghetto video and on that track, he declared “No be say I wan blow with one track/And my music fade away/And I no fit come back/I dey try to win a Grammy to say I don die/But 2012 I sign the contract…” and nine years later, he won a Grammy for in a category where King Sunny Ade was first nominated in 1984 with Syncro System and the Kutis had also been nominated.

Winning in this category is a no mean feat as Femi, Seun and Sunny would tell you – to be nominated solely on the strength of your own work (as against contribution to a foreign work which had earned Sikiru Adepoju a Grammy in 2009) goes beyond just the music – it also requires an elaborate international PR machine to get you on Seth Myers, Trever Noah or Jimmy Fallon shows. This was the path taken by Youssou N’Dour and Angelique Kidjo – but Burna had to stir up demons on the outside to inspire his own inner demons to push him to this Grammy.

Kidjo, Femi Kuti, Sunny Ade, Youssou N’dour and all the greats who went on before Burna to capture the world stage were all immensely talented but the talent was never enough and Burna soon found that out.

Ending his contract with Aristokrat and starting his own Spaceship Entertainment went more calmly than many splits in the Nigerian music industry go – think May D splitting from the Okoyes or Kiss (Kizz) Daniel from G-Worldwide. His next album, On a Spaceship, is one that many Burna fans like to forget — not for the sound not being unmistakably Burna’s but that he had become too comfortable, I think, and his demons went quiet.

So controversy had to stir it up and the Mr 2Kay saga suddenly brought Burna back to prove a point: Outside was the result and Burna fans gathered once again under the name Outsiders — every true fan of Burna Boy came together at this point and he has never lost anyone who liked this album which was sort of like his rebirth.

By this time in 2018 though, Burna had found the combination that unlocks his genius and he was determined to use it again and again. So when Coachella came calling and his name was in small prints, Burna kicked on his Instagram story:

“@coachella I really appreciate you. But I don’t appreciate the way my name is written so small in your bill,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am an AFRICAN GIANT and will not be reduced to whatever that tiny writing means. Fix things quick please.”

And everyone went mad and many were Nigerians: who was Burna to complain? Was he as big as this or that person? And on and on.

Having called himself an African Giant though, Burna had to prove it – and with his next album of the same title, he did. Winning a Grammy nomination in the process but alongside Angelique Kidjo whose international PR machine is perhaps the strongest of any African artiste with Ladysmith Black Mambazo coming just a bit close, Burna was destined to lose.

Kidjo though recognized his hunger and dedicated her win to him right on stage. She then followed it up with a visit to Burna and his mum. I personally do not doubt that Burna would have gone after her or the Grammys at that point, even if just to stir up a demon.

But the demon stirred again anyway – this time with the voice of defeat ringing in his ears and Burna again pushed out an album for a very rare back-to-back Grammy nomination with Twice as Tall. In the creative arts, this is counter-intuitive.

When you push out a massive project and it doesn’t quite hit the mark, you take a rest and reflect. Burna did the exact opposite and doubled down on his sound, even insisting that he was better than anybody was thinking but this time, he sounded just a bit reflective, if not humble.

All his emotions were on that first track, tracing his journey and insisting all he had ever wanted in life was to be better than before and to keep aiming higher…. “I remember when I couldn’t level up/’Cause the Grammys had me feeling sick as f/Throwing up and s/Asking questions like “Why it wasn’t us?” Almost had a n**** feeling envious.”

Twice as Tall did not win as much applause in Nigeria, but Burna knew exactly where he wanted it to reverberate. And yesterday, the sound was affirmed and Nigerians will now bow to the album.

Where Burna goes from here is anybody’s guess – his demons may find rest with a Grammy in hand because what is better for any artiste than a Grammy in hand?

The obvious answer is multiple Grammys – and I think Burna will keep going. Because once you crack the Grammy code, it stays cracked.