Afrobeats superstar Davido has acknowledged that his decision to pursue music full-time was influenced by Don Jazzy and D’banj.
The “Unavailable” hitmaker stated in a recent interview with Streetz Atlanta how the two Nigerian music titans demonstrated to him that African music might lead to a prosperous career.
The Grammy-nominated 32-year-old singer claimed that he first encountered D’banj and Don Jazzy in Atlanta when he was just 14 years old.
According to Davido, the two were collaborating with worldwide artists like Snoop Dogg and Kanye West at the time.
He also recalled how their success and the fact that they were establishing themselves in the international music industry had impressed him.
“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 got Rema, Ayra Starr and others. But they were like the first people to show me that you can make something off African music,” he said.
“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 check up to the strip club and they spend 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, 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.”
