If there is one thing Davido did right at the beginning of his career, it was to come out as an artiste without the extra title of being a rich kid which would have jeopardized everything. People love the rag to riches story and that is a Fact!
In a recent interview with Fact Magazine, the coolest kid in Africa reveal how it was when he started his career and the challenges along the way.
I don’t know, it’s just the rhythm. But like I tell people, African music has always been popular. Now, I just feel everyone’s paying attention – with social media there are so many avenues. It’s all coming through. And if you ask me, the UK is one of the most likely to accept African music when it comes to the Western world. There’s a link to Jamaican artists, I really think we should be coming together and collaborating. I’ve done a record with Popcaan, we went to Jamaica and I shot a little movie with him. It’s both dancehall and African.
I don’t know why there’s so much creativity in Africa right now. I was with Diplo the other week in LA and he was saying, how do you do it? I don’t know. It’s just the rhythm. There are some crazy Nigerian producers right now – Shizzi, Masterkraft, Young John [sings Young John synth riff]. Artists like Burna Boy, Tekno, Olamide, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage. There are so many and not only Nigeria – the South African scene too, with Nasty C. Africa is just full of talent.
FM: On ‘Coolest Kid In Africa’ you namecheck Kanye and Beyoncé before declaring, “I get my riches from Africa”.
I’m not saying I don’t need the west, but the majority of my career hasn’t been there. Before I signed a deal, my friends and family would talk to me and make sure it’s what I wanted to do, because I was satisfied in Africa. I was getting good numbers and I was doing my thing, I was performing all over the world but the fans were predominantly African. I was just trying to show the west that Africa is cool. Funnily enough, everyone in that video is African whether Caucasian, Asian or whatever, everybody grew up in Africa.
FM: You’ve also got some fantastic layered vocal arrangements – did you grow up singing?
No! I started a couple of years before I dropped my first single. You know, the funny thing is I record myself. I prefer it when I record and arrange before I give the song to the engineers. That’s something I used to do for other people – I was an engineer before I started the music thing fully, so I understand how I was on vocals. I was telling other people what to do – recording and performances – and one day someone just said, ‘why don’t you try yourself?’ That’s when I recorded my first record, and from there it was just… [sings]
FM: Sean Paul has been talking recently about how big American artists use dancehall artists without crediting them, or treat them like tokens. Do you feel this? How do you avoid it?
I just go in and do my thing. Everyone’s an artist; I don’t feel like I’m less of an artist, but I don’t walk in thinking I’m the big artist.
Sean Paul has kind of Westernized his sound – it’s EDM, pop, whatever, not Jamaican-Jamaican. But he did what he had to do, and he’s done it all and I feel like he wanted something else for his life and career. Another example is Pitbull, he used to rap but he found that avenue where he could take his culture worldwide and that’s what he did.
FM: Your story has some pretty interesting chapters to it. You famously grew up in a rich household, and on ‘Dami Duro’ you refer to yourself as “omo baba olowo” [Yoruba for “son of a wealthy man”]. How has that affected your image and popularity at home?
It’s not easy, it’s harder, especially because everyone loves the rags-to-riches story of the young boy from the hood. But I’m proud to be who I am. It was harder in the beginning – everyone was just like, oh, his dad is… – but the music was just too good. When I go in the hood right now my music is the most loved, even if everyone knows where I came from is a thousand miles away. There are lot of rich kids in Nigeria, whose dads have way more money than my dad, so why isn’t it working for them?
FM: At the start of your career, you dropped out of university in Atlanta and went AWOL in London from your family for six months. What were you thinking at the time?
It was really tough. I felt like I had to do it at the time. I had to make a stand and say, this is what I wanted to do – so I kind of had to run away from home. They were looking for me everywhere but I was just recording, hiding. I said to myself that I couldn’t go back to my family and disappoint them, so I had to do something. So I kept at it, kept at it, kept at it.
FM: How easy was it to repair the relationships afterwards?
It was very easy, because the music just healed everything. The success of the music was surprising to everybody, so then it was more like, keep going, keep going. Now I represent the family.
FM: How much would you say your success is down to hard work, and how much to your talent?
Hard work and belief. And not focusing on bullshit, focusing on real shit. Something I had to learn recently in the past year – don’t look at anybody else, just keep doing your shit. Everybody has their own story and right now I’m ready. So you keep doing your shit.
FM: Were there any moments you lost the belief?
No, no, never ever. Well, when I first started, yeah. I got over it when I just dropped the music. The music healed everything. And I had something else to do and it gave me something else to focus on. It’s funny, once you taste a little bit of success, you want it. And that helps you want it more than everything else.
Read full interview on Fact Magazine website.
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