Burna Boy’s ‘African Giant’ makes Rolling Stone’s ‘500 greatest albums of all time’ list

‘African Giant’, a 19-song project by Burna Boy, has been listed among Rolling Stone’s ‘500 greatest albums of all time‘. 

The first ‘500 greatest albums’ article by Rolling Stone was published in 2003, with a little adjustment in 2012.

In the latest edition published on December 31, ‘African Giant,’ Burna Boy’s fourth studio album, secured the number 330 spot, making it the best Nigerian album on Rolling Stone’s list.

“African Giant was the Nigerian superstar’s Afrofusion at its most expansive, mixing hip-hop, R&B, dancehall, and other sounds with Nigerian music,” the magazine wrote.

Released in July 2019, the body of work won ‘album of the year’ at the 2019 All Africa Music Awards and was nominated for ‘best world music album’ at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards.

The late Fela Kuti and African 70’s ‘Expensive Shit’ and King Sunny Ade’s ‘The Best of the Classic Years’ also claimed the number 402 and 465 positions respectively on the list.

Marvin Gaye’s 1971 album ‘What’s Going On’ was named the greatest album of all time while The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds’ album (1966) secured the second spot.

‘Blue’ (1971), an album by Joni Mitchell, came third while ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ (1976) by Stevie Wonder and ‘Abbey Road’ by The Beatles completed the top five.

Rolling Stone said its ‘500 greatest albums’ list covers many decades of popular music, including voting among more than 300 artistes, writers, producers, and industry figures.

“When we first did the RS 500 in 2003, people were talking about the “death of the album.” The album —and especially the album release — is more relevant than ever. (As in 2003, we allowed votes for compilations and greatest-hits albums, mainly because a well-made compilation can be just as coherent and significant as an LP, because compilations helped shaped music history, and because many hugely important artists recorded their best work before the album had arrived as a prominent format.)” it wrote.

“Of course, it could still be argued that embarking on a project like this is increasingly difficult in an era of streaming and fragmented taste. But that was part of what made rebooting the RS 500 fascinating and fun; 94 of the albums on the list are from this century, and 163 are new additions that weren’t on the 2003 or 2012 versions. The classics are still the classics, but the canon keeps getting bigger and better.”

Check out the full list here