Award-winning Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has revealed that his father, Dr Adedeji Adeleke, sent police after him when he left school for music.
The singer made this revelation during an interview with an American-based podcast, Earn Your Leisure, which was published on Wednesday.
Davido stated that while his dad thought he was at school, he was actually doing music.
“I wasn’t in school. I was facing music full time and over the years, he found out that I wasn’t in school and there was a whole lot of drama,” he said.
“I moved back to Nigeria and then, he wanted me to go back to school. Because he was like, ‘after school, you can go back to do the music and bla blah blah. Just get your degree first’ — which I’ve gotten. Thanks to God,” the singer added.
Davido stated that overtime, his music career started getting bigger and after he was informed that people went crazy after his song was played at a club, he finally left school to pursue music.
“I left school. I went back to the city and then my dad was chasing me with the police,” he said.
When asked if the police were sent after him, Davido replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, they were coming after me to go back to school. Any show he (my dad) saw me on, on a flier or whatever, he was shutting the show down,” Davido said.
The singer stated that his biggest breakthrough came when he released the song ‘Dami Duro.’
“Then I dropped this one song called Dami Duro and the song became so big that even the president was singing it. Even people my dad couldn’t even get to, was singing it,” the singer said.
According to Davido, this was a turning point between him and his dad as the duo made a deal which allowed the singer to attend shows when he wasn’t having classes.
“After two to three years, I got a degree in business management and music,” Davido said.
The singer also said he didn’t know his father was rich till he was 13 years old.
Davido said that he never knew of his family’s wealth as a child because his parents lived a modest life.
He said: “I didn’t know he was rich till I was 13 because he lived so normal. I didn’t even know he was a billionaire driving a Honda.
“He had a brand new silver Honda Accord. He had a driver. My mum had a Toyota or so, or a Honda truck or something. So I didn’t know.
“They lived so modestly until we moved out of that house to the new house.”
The singer stated that when they got to the house, he then realised that his father was rich.
“From the new house, that was when I started trying to know what my dad did and got to know that he was into business,” Davido said.
Davido further explained that he is still amazed at his father’s humility and modesty.
“Till date, he’s still so humble and modest with the way he spends and the way he goes about his business. The way he handles his business is still amazing to me,” he added.
