Davido, the Afrobeats star, says he once ran away from his family’s $60-million home to sleep in a friend’s studio due to his passion for music.
In a recent interview, the singer spoke about his journey in music so far and earlier struggles in the industry.
“We had $60 million dollar house in Nigeria that I ran away from, I was sleeping in my friend’s studio, hot. My guys were telling me, be going home ooh,” he said.
He also said that his father had him and his friends arrested several times during shows.
“My dad saw a billboard of me and his security told him that your son has the hottest song in the club right now and he came to the show I headlined and arrested the fans, me, my friends, and even my promoter,” he said.
“No one wanted to book me because of this. It happened more than once and the third time I said I’m gone, I scaled the fence and I was running and I remember, I was not wearing shoes.
“They called me and said they arrested all my friends, then I said don’t want to do music again then they released them.
“I was on the roll after that, switching locations like a real-life fugitive, switching hotels, switching sim cards.”
He said his father wasn’t very supportive initially until when his songs started to make waves.
“I recorded the song called ‘Dami Duro’ and it means you can’t stop me. ‘Ema Dami duro, emi Omo babalowo’ means you can’t stop me, leave me to do what I want to do, I’m the son of a rich man,” he said.
“So people called him, let David do this, cause the music is popping, he friends were listening.
“After that, he became so supportive, like every album I drop he has to hear it. My dad called me 3 times about a record on my album, I never thought this day will come.”