Nigerian music star, David Adeleke popularly known as Davido has recalled how his billionaire father, Deji Adeleke repeatedly sent policemen to arrest him.
For many parents, especially back in the day, a career in entertainment was not met with the warm embrace that many children of today are receiving. Back then, leaving school to focus on a career in entertainment brought with it a lot of repercussions, and one performer who experienced that at a very extreme level but then went on to become one of the biggest stars out of Africa, is Davido.
Speaking with Hot 97 FM in New York about how his father used to arrest not only him, but even people who attended shows, Davido shared why and how it eventually stopped happening. In his words:
“My father didn’t want me performing, at all. He sent police to get me. Like he’ll see a billboard for example, ‘Davido performing, Wizkid performing’. He would send police to arrest everybody – the show promoter, if you’re there, if we’re backstage and we’re chatting it up, we’re gone.”
When asked, “arrested for what?” Davido responded:
“I gotta go back to school. So I’d have to go back to school. So after a while, he kept on doing it, and then there was one time – This was when I knew that ‘Oh I’m lit!’. They [the police] came and got me and then I’m in the holding cell place. Then the dude that got the keys, his phone rings, and it’s my song. I said ‘that is me, that is me!’ He said ‘you’re Davido?’, I said ‘yes!’, and he let me go. BOOM! I said it’s over.
And then I dropped a record after that, it became like the biggest record in Africa. Like the president was messing with it, the president was playing it.”
Speaking about when his father finally stopped sending Policemen to arrest him, Davido responded:
“Once I finished school. But like I had to like a part-time type of stuff. It’s not that he hated music, he just wanted me to go to school. He likes music. I feel like he just wanted that whatever I’m gonna do, I had to be like successful, not just do it [anyhow]. I had to be like over successful. He’s very proud today.”