Grammy-nominated Nigerian singer David Adeleke, widely known as Davido, has stated that he faces more criticism than any other artist in the country, largely because of his privileged upbringing.
The OBO crooner claimed in a recent episode of the “Culture Knock Out” podcast that if he had not initially concealed his background, the stigma associated with being a “rich kid” might have had an impact on his career.
The Afrobeat singer stated that he had already scored a couple of hit songs when his background became public knowledge.
Davido maintained that the hatred from critics did not stop him from releasing his songs.
He said, “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.”
