What Burna Boy's Song "Ye" Is REALLY About (comments from the YouTube official video's discussion thread)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a three part pancocojams series about the 2018 Burna Boy song "Ye".

Part II presents selected comments about the meaning of Burna Boy's song "Ye" from the discussion thread for the official YouTube video of that song. (The official video for that song is embedded in Part I of this series.)

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/01/nigerian-afrobeat-singer-burna-boy-ye.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. Part I presents information about Nigerian Afrobeat singer, songwriter Burna Boy and showcases a YouTube video of his hit 2018 song "Ye".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-traditional-use-of-exclamation-ye.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part III presents comments about the traditional exclamation "ye" and similar exclamations that are found in West Africa, elsewhere in Africa, and in the Caribbean. These selected comments are from a sub-thread of the discussion thread for the official YouTube video of Burna Boy's song "Ye".

The Addendum to this post presents information about the word "ye" from http://naijalingo.com.

The content of this post is presented for cultural and linguistic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Burna Boy for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to Burna Boy for publishing this video on YouTube.
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A pancocojams post about other contemporary meanings of the Nigerian word "Ye" will be published ASAP. I also plan to publish a pancocojams post that presents comments about Nigerian Pidgin English and Jamaican Patois. Those posts will have the tag "Burna Boy song Ye" and/or the tag/s "Nigerian Pidgin English" in addition to other tags.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
Burna Boy's 2018 hit song "Ye" is sung in Nigerian Pidgin English, Yoruba, and African American Vernacular English in addition to standard American English. Two examples of African American Vernacular English in that song are the lyrics "My "n word"* what's it gon' be?" and the lyrics "I still want turn up" (which I believe loosely translated means "I still want to enjoy life". One widely used form of the African American originated slang phrase "turn up" is "turnt up".

Read the selected comments below for explanations about the meaning of this song.

These comments are presented in relative chronological order. If you disagree with any or all of these opinions, please share what you think Burna Boy's song "Ye" means in the comment section below.
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*A form of what is widely known as "the n word" is fully spelled out in the lyrics to that song.

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SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT WHAT BURNA BOY'S SONG "YE" MEANS
(from the discussion thread of that song's official YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPe09eE6Xio)

I've added numbers to these comments for referencing purposes only.

1. IAmATanker TheTankerIsMe, 2018
For all those that are not familiar “Ye” is an exclamation Nigerians do when they are surprised, excited, shocked or scared. Normally with this action as demonstrated in the emoji 🙆🏾‍♀‍"

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2. kayla george, 2019
"What is he saying?"

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REPLY
3. IAmATanker TheTankerIsMe, 2019
"kayla george he’s basically talking about how crazy his life is now, how he can afford all these things, how his people grind hard to get money and how he’s just living lavish and doing his thing because people will talk no matter what so there’s no point stressing (“I can’t come and kill myself”). So in that context “Ye” is a reaction to all these exciting changes and events that are happening in his life."

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4. Mona Majestic, 2019
"This song is about the black people’s struggle..."

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REPLY
5. Hobby Bear, 2019
"Bless you queen. U just summarized it in a very simple way 👊🏾🙌🏽😍"

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REPLY
6. Ken Mckay, 2019
..."Nigerians have adapted to suffering and smiling, we are getting screwed over by the government but no one wants to revolt because no one is ready to die."

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7. Tim Akhile, 2019
"@ken so on point"

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8. OurTruth, 2019
"Oh wow I didn’t know,What language is he speaking?"

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REPLY
9. Lumani LuLu, 2019
"OurTruth Nigerian Pidgin talking about the hate Africans get in this world yet we still strive and remain the best even when they try and kill us it never works we thrive. We enjoy, live life, get money the best way we can and live. Basically our enemies never win is the message"

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REPLY
10. Hope Oguidi, 2019
"@OurTruth he is speaking yoruba, a Nigerian dialect"

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REPLY
11. fade1283, 2019
"@Hope Oguidi yoruba is a language, not a dialect"

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12. A S, 2019
"No idea what he's saying but this 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲 thinks this song is 🔥🔥🔥🔥."
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"JM" = Jamaica; Jamaican

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REPLY
13. Happy Ness, 2019
"He is talking about societal oppression, corruption in Government and bad leaderships. People struggling to do all kind of things to make money just to survive, to buy basic necessities like buy car, build house, and yet these same oppressed people are not bold or ready to stand up to their oppressors for fear of losing their lives because they would rather only talk about it, go to clubs to turn up and enjoy life, so they think ("suffering and smiling")."

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REPLY
14. Bernedette Kuteyi, 2019
"A S. the back ground song is say Oh baby your bodi is so fine. Also he is saying talking about life in Nigeria when you make money, how people want you to be. That’s why he can’t kill himself"

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15. Angel Highlight, 2019
"For all the Americans here and non Nigerians
What he is saying is that he will enjoy life drive all the cars and buy mansions
He will enjoy his life before he die that he just got one life to live and he shouldn’t worry about what people are saying because people must talk and talk is cheap"

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REPLY
16. Bidemi Akinade, 2019
2 months ago
THAT IS NOT WHAT HE IS SAYING!!!!!

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REPLY
17. George Lin, 2019
"He's saying that he's gonna live it up and shine even if it doesn't fit what society expects because of his race."

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REPLY
18. Chimezie Hh, 2019
"It’s funny because you are just lying to people and they are buying it.. this song is about the difficulties we face in Nigeria, we prioritize individual accolades and no one wants to die or be revolutionary regarding the government, we just want to ball, get money flex and go back to our bad roads poverty etc. no one wants to die to make our lives better. It’s better you don’t say what you don’t know!"

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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

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