Multi-award-winning Afrobeats star, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has disclosed how his wealthy father, Adedeji Adeleke, once used his influence to balance his music career and education, ultimately hindering his progress in the music industry.
In an interview with American TV host Kelly Clarkson, the artist, affectionately called OBO, revealed that his father was insistent on him completing his first degree.
He said the pressure was much that he was compelled to make an agreement where he would attend school for two weeks in a month and pursue his music career for the other two weeks.
As his music career grew, his fame also grew and he became a distraction to his class, which left him with no choice but to do part-time classes.
He stated that his father wasn’t pleased with his career growth, which was overshadowing his academics so he started pulling strings to get him cancelled from shows.
Davido said: “I come from a big family that is really big on education. I’m a first-generation entertainer, in my whole life of bloodline.
“He was really adamant about me finishing school. One, because I didn’t make it. Two, because you know what I’m saying? He didn’t mind me doing music, but he was really bent on me, you know finishing school.
“He owns a University, so again. So you can imagine and my mom was a college professor. I think they were also scared because whatever you want your kids to do, you want them to be successful in it. In our business, it’s not that easy to be successful.
“So you know, we kind of made a deal, where I go to school for like two weeks out of the month and the other two weeks, I can be in the studio and do what I want.
“It got to a point where I was a distraction to the class when my music was getting bigger. After a while, I got to do part-time class-type stuff. I was getting too big and he got mad.
“I’m talking about he sees a billboard of me doing a show, the show gets cancelled before I get there. He has that type of power. So it got to a point where everyone was scared to book me. But eventually, I did finish school and now he is my biggest fan.”