Monsters You Made (feat. Chris Martin)

This fiery rebuke to European colonialism in Africa finds Burna Boy tackling miseducation, systemic racism and social unrest. You turn around and you blame Them for their anger and rage Put them in shackles and chains Because of what they became We are the monsters you made Angered by the oil exploiters he was witnessing in his Nigerian home state of Rivers, Burna Boy started to write the song during the COVID-19 lockdown. "It's like someone digging up under your house, taking what they want that may be valuable to them," he explained to Apple Music. "But they've destroyed your home, and now it's unsafe and now it's no longer home to you again. The environmental situation has been going on for years and years and no one is helping, but then people will only hear about the pipe bombings or the kidnappings. They should understand that it's never just that one side to the story and that everything has a root cause."

Burna Boy wrote this protest anthem prior to the police killing of George Floyd, but it ties in with the ensuing scrutiny concerning historical figures and institutions. During the second verse, Burna Boy takes issue with the 18th-century Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who the Nigerian singer was taught in school "discovered the river Niger." The fool That said they found river Niger They've been lying to you Ain't no denying the truth See what I'm tryin' to do "This is a river that has been drank from and bathed in, and children have been given birth to in, for thousands and thousands of years," he seethed to NME. "Now suddenly a man called Mungo Park comes from f---ing England or some s--t and 'discovers' the Niger? How do you discover something that people have their history in? Then you go and teach these people's children that in schools! That's something to fight against. That's something that needs to be f---ing blown up into f---ing space."

Chris Martin croons the hook on this fusion of reggae and rock. Burna Boy explained to Apple Music's Zane Lowe that after recording the song, he left a space on the chorus to be sung by someone that could provide a contrast to his critique of white Western imperialism. The Coldplay frontman was the only white pop star Burna could think of who could bring that equilibrium and still relate. "In my mind I'm like, there's only one person I could possibly think of to fit this, to bring out this message in the way that would have the balance, to make it appealing to everyone else," he said.