Nigerian afrobeats superstar, David Adeleke, aka Davido, has recounted the career decline he suffered in 2016 after he got signed to American record label, Sony Music.
Davido got signed to Sony Music in 2015 but released his first project under the label ,’Son Of Mercy’ in 2016.
Featuring on the latest episode of the Drink Champs podcast co-hosted by N.O.R.E and DJ EFN, he said 2016 was “a dead year” for him because his debut EP under Sony was a colossal failure.
He said the label made him work outside his comfort zone and with producers he wasn’t familiar with.
The ‘Omo Baba Olowo’ crooner said he later convinced the label to allow him return to Nigeria and make music the way he is familiar with and the result was his 2017 monster hit song, ‘If’.
Davido said, “I remember telling them [Sony Music team] that the producers you guys put me in with, are cool but I need to go home. I was in America for almost seven months.
“I woke up one day and I was like, I need to go home. So, I just got on a plane and went back home [Nigeria]. My brother, in two weeks from when I got back home, ‘If’ blew up.
“Every artist go through it; that point when you are so high, you’re untouchable and then down the line you started fading. Every artist go through that. That is the worst thing ever. I have had that period in my life and I was like, nah, I need to go back. Immediately I got back home, I got back my mojo.”
