Nigerian singer, David Adedeji Adeleke popularly known as Davido has revealed that his colleagues, Don Jazzy and D’banj inspired him to take up music full-time.
Gatekeepers News reports that Davido credited the two singers during a recent interview with Streetz Atlanta.
The ‘Assurance’ crooner said they showed him that it was possible to make a successful career out of African music.
The 32-year-old singer said he first met Don Jazzy and D’banj when he was 14 years old in Atlanta, United States, adding that the duo was working with international artistes like Kanye West and Snoop Dogg at the time.
He recalled being impressed by their success and the fact that they were making a name for themselves in the global music industry.
Davido said, “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.”
“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.”
