Popular Afrobeats singer, Davido, has come out to speak up about the intense criticism he keeps facing as a Nigerian artist. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, he has a lot of haters because of his privileged upbringing, and his wealthy background could’ve actually derailed his music career at its early stage if it was widely known at the time.
Davido added that by the time Nigerians knew his dad was rich, he had already established himself as a hitmaker, and the hate could no longer bring him down.
His words, “I’m the biggest criticised artist in Nigeria. I mean, I’m on fire and I’ve been on fire for a while. In the beginning, they didn’t know that my dad was rich. So the stigma of a rich kid doing music didn’t end up as crazy as it should have been for me.
People didn’t know my father was rich. It was too late, I already did three hit songs before they found out that my dad had money…
But I just wanted to do music. I didn’t care if I had to become homeless. At that point, that was all I wanted to do. Nothing would stop me.
Over time, people started hating me because my dad is rich. But I keep on dropping good music, and it keeps working out.
It happens to everyone, once you become the biggest in anything, you will get criticised. You are doing an election, people love you and they vote for you. But when you become president, they hate you.”
WOW.
David Adedeji Adeleke (born November 21, 1992), who is better known as Davido, is an American-born Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer. Davido was born in Atlanta, US, and raised in Lagos; he made his music debut as a member of the music group KB International. He studied business administration at Oakwood University before dropping out to make beats and record vocal references. Davido rose to fame after releasing “Dami Duro”, the second single from his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo (2012), from which six additional singles—”Back When”, “Ekuro”, “Overseas”, “All of You”, “Gbon Gbon”, and “Feel Alright”—were taken. In 2012, Davido won the Next Rated award at The Headies. Between 2013 and 2015, he released the hit singles “Gobe”, “One of a Kind”, “Skelewu”, “Aye”, “Tchelete (Goodlife)”, “Naughty”, “Owo Ni Koko”, “The Sound” and “The Money”.
In May 2014, Davido criticized the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) after missing his flight to London, and accused them of pestering him for money. On May 11, 2014, the PR officer for the NIS denied Davido’s allegations and said they did not issue him an exit permit because he did not have the correct travel documents with him.
On April 6, 2012, Nigerian Entertainment Today reported Davido had signed a ₦30 million endorsement deal with MTN. The deal unveiled him as the face of MTN Pulse, a marketing campaign aimed at Nigerian youth. On October 24, 2013, Pulse Nigeria reported Guinness Nigeria had signed Davido for an endorsement deal. As part of the deal, Davido performed at the Guinness World of More Concert alongside artists including P-Square, D’banj, Wizkid, Ice Prince, Burna Boy, Olamide, Phyno, Chidinma, Waje and Tiwa Savage. On May 9, 2018, Guardian Life reported Davido had signed an endorsement deal with Infinix Mobile, a Hong Kong-based smartphone manufacturer.
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