Meaning of “Cheat on Me” by Burna Boy (ft. Dave)
Burna Boy’s seventh-studio album is titled “I Told Them…”. The song “Cheat on Me” was made public on August 22nd as a single from this album. It is the fourth single from the LP, being preceded by the following:
- “Sittin’ on Top of the World”
- “Talibans II”
- “Big 7”
Burna Boy, who hails from Nigeria and Dave, a resident of the UK (via Nigerian parentage), co-wrote this song. The pair did officially collaborate before, on Dave’s 2019 track “Location”, which featured Burna Boy.
And besides the two of them, the other writers of “Cheat on Me” are:
- Jimmy Napes
- LiTek
- Kwabs
LiTek and WhYJay are the official producers of this track.
The Lyrics of “Cheat on Me”
Before delving into the lyrics, let it first be established that Burna Boy’s people have verified that this song is “purely music for the fans to enjoy”. They went on to stress that it doesn’t have anything to do with Burna’s past relationships.
Of course what they’re more specifically referring to is his recent, somewhat-messy and semi-publicized breakup from Stefflon Don, a relatively well-known rapper from the UK. But at least that has been established, that this song is not supposed to be about that breakup, so we can move forward with this analysis without imbuing it with any of such theories.
That said, it’s arguable that making such a statement wasn’t necessary to begin with since, as presented in the chorus, what we’re dealing with here is a case of the vocalist “cheating on” himself.
According to some analysts, Burna making such an assertion is meant to point to the idea that in earlier times, he was unable to capitalize on certain opportunities due to lack of awareness of them. But how exactly that concept ties into what’s being put forth in the verses isn’t abundantly clear.
“Ah, and I couldn’t see, I was cheating on, cheating on me
Ah, and I couldn’t see, I was cheating on, cheating on me
Me, I just want see my people dem—”
Burna uses his verse to sympathize with his homeys who are unable to get visas. It’s pretty common knowledge these days that many, if not most Africans would rather reside elsewhere in the world than the Motherland. This is largely due to the fact that it’s more challenging to earn a decent living in Africa than in some other places, such as the United Kingdom for instance, since it is a First World nation.
That being said, Burna Boy, despite being born in Nigeria, has had access to the United Kingdom since his teenage years. Or put otherwise, he’s been granted more opportunity than most of his Nigerian brethren.
So that would apparently be why he envisions a better day for the homeys as one in which they are able to really travel internationally. After all, as argued they “no be Taliban” and “no be Al-Qaeda”. In other words, they aren’t terrorists, so Burna doesn’t see why they would be denied visas.
Dave steps in
Dave starts off his verse briefly touching on a similar topic, how he “had to fight for (his) visa”. Santan was actually born in London in 1995, thus making him a UK citizen by default. Owing to this, it’s not abundantly clear what visa he’s referring to.
But he doesn’t use the rest of the passage to harp on such a topic anyway. Instead he follows that statement up by basically rapping about women. He then proceeds to relatedly boast about his wealth.
It also appears that before closing out his verse, Burna refers to a romantic interest within the context of “cheating on” himself. But to reiterate, it isn’t really clear what that assertion is supposed to mean. And conclusively this is bit of an unorthodox piece, one which is indirectly based on the fact that the vocalists at hand originated from Africa. But it also features some conventional elements, such as braggadocio.
