In early 2020, Grammy winner Burna Boy had just moved into a seven-bedroom home nestled onto a bucolic estate in Lagos—Nigeria’s creative and commercial capital. His architect, Akose Enebeli, had constructed the two-story Lekki house in which Burna could simply be himself.
But the story of this home, and how it came to be, goes back to 2017, when Enebeli was in the middle of building a 10-bedroom mansion for former Manchester United striker Jude Ighalo and got a call from an unknown number. Burna’s manager—and mom—Bose Ogulu, was on the other line. She had seen the unfinished residence and decided to cold-call the architect.
Flash forward not too much further in the future, and Burna, a superstar Nigerian singer, songwriter, and rapper with multiple homes around the world was happily “mind blown” when he saw Enebeli’s designs for his own new abode.
“He just kept saying ‘wow, wow you’re bursting my brain,’” Enebeli tells AD. Overall, the architect loved the experience of turning an empty housing lot into a spectacular residence, all while getting an enthusiastic thumbs up from his famous client.
“This is. . . where I can create,” Burna, the whose given name is Damini Ogulu, tells AD. “This is where I made my Grammy album.”
In early 2020, Grammy winner Burna Boy had just moved into a seven-bedroom home nestled onto a bucolic estate in Lagos—Nigeria’s creative and commercial capital. His architect, Akose Enebeli, had constructed the two-story Lekki house in which Burna could simply be himself.
But the story of this home, and how it came to be, goes back to 2017, when Enebeli was in the middle of building a 10-bedroom mansion for former Manchester United striker Jude Ighalo and got a call from an unknown number. Burna’s manager—and mom—Bose Ogulu, was on the other line. She had seen the unfinished residence and decided to cold-call the architect. Flash forward not too much further in the future, and Burna, a superstar Nigerian singer, songwriter, and rapper with multiple homes around the world was happily “mind blown” when he saw Enebeli’s designs for his own new abode. “He just kept saying ‘wow, wow you’re bursting my brain,’” Enebeli tells AD. Overall, the architect loved the experience of turning an empty housing lot into a spectacular residence, all while getting an enthusiastic thumbs up from his famous client. “This is. . . where I can create,” Burna, whose given name is Damini Ogulu, tells AD. “This is where I made my Grammy album.”