Silverspoon Afrobeat musician David Adeleke, popularly known in music circles as Davido, has revealed how hanging out with Don Jazzy and D’Banj motivated him to pursue music as a career.
The talented ‘Skelewu’ crooner who made the disclosure in a recent interview on Streetz Studio with Et Cali recalled how he first met Don Jazzy and D’Banj as a 14-year-old.
He disclosed that while growing up as a teenager in Atlanta, Georgia, he picked them up at the airport while playing host to the pair as he took them around town and watched them spend as much as 20,000 USD while hanging out at a nit club.
Davido revealed that after that encounter, he decided to drop out of school and return home to Lagos because the superstar lifestyle gave him hope that he would one day become a famous musician.
In addition to recalling being amazed by their success and the fact that they were establishing themselves in the international music industry, Davido noted that at the time, the pair was working with international artists like Snoop Dogg and Kanye West.
READ ALSO: Davido reveals how father shaped his life
“They were African artistes, the label was actually Don Jazzy and D’banj. It was a producer and artiste duo. The producer is still the biggest producer in Africa right now, he has Rema, Ayra Starr and others. But they were like the first people to show me that you can make something off African music,” he said.
“I picked them up from the airport when I was 14 years old in Atlanta. They came from Nigeria, they had a show and a video shoot. These were Nigerian artistes from Africa and at the time, I think it was Kanye West that got a wind of them and they did something with him. I was like you’re in the studio with Kanye West? Off African music?
“And they came another time, this time they were going to LA to shoot a video with Snoop Dogg. I checked up at the strip club and they spent like $20,000 and this was in 2008. After seeing that, I was doing music with my cousins and we were leaning towards R&B, Afro R&B, and pretty boy swag.
“But when I saw that, that weekend alone I was like I am going home. Even artistes who had not crossed over to the international space were doing big things, selling out stadiums. I was like ‘Dad I am going back to Nigeria’ and that is how I did it.”
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