Grammy award-winning artist Burna Boy has expressed his respect for Nigerian music veterans including 2Baba, Timaya, D’banj, Larry Gaaga, and Wande Coal.

The acclaimed ‘African Giant’ highlighted these figures as the sole legends who have significantly influenced his journey in the music industry.

Burna Boy made these remarks in response to veteran producer ID Cabasa's recent plea for Nigerian singers to honor and respect the pioneers of the industry.

During a recent Instagram live session with fans, he said: “The only OGs who have impacted my life; number one, Timaya, because he is the one who showed me that achieving stardom was possible. I’m going to respect him for the rest of my life.

“D’banj also supported me back then. He paid for ‘Wan Da Mo’ video. These are two people I don’t joke with. It’s not like n*ggas don’t have respect, no, n*ggas have just been through a lot and we only remember the people we saw in the dark times. People like Larry Gaaga. He stood by me back then. So these are people I will respect for the rest of my life.

“When you’re talking about OGs, as far as I’m concerned, those names are the only ones in addition to 2Face based on musicality and the fact that he did a feature with me when he didn’t have to back in the days. These are OGs to me. Any other person isn’t an OG to me. ID Cabasa, you can meet Olamide and you can be an OG to him [laughs]. We’ve all been through stuff differently and we all see life differently.

“I can’t forget Wande Coal, too. At a point in time, we were so close.”