Davido (dcent entertaiment)

dcent entertaiment will feature the future potential heavy hitters in Naija music. Any material featured in this category will be from an unsigned OR up & coming Nigerian/African artiste/producer/record label that boasts of nothing but promising content. There will only be ONE post a month in this category.
If you have or know of anyone’s music that you feel is a hit or any good, please send an email to the official notjustOk email (music-at-notjustok.com) with a link to their page or where we can download the song. BETTERYET, send in the artiste’s song(s) as mp3 attachments along with a brief info/bio and a picture/artwork.
This month’s NotjustOk Hype is Davido. Many of you remember him for his first smash single Back When ft. Naeto C and his new Club banger Dami Duro. Read below, how he came to his current position in the music industry, his thought process and where he is headed.

Can you give us a little bit of a background on yourself (Who is Davido)?
I’m the last child out of five children; I’m a producer, an artist, engineer, and student. I like to chill, I like to make music.
How old are you?
19.
How does it feel being so young in the entertainment industry?
It has its good side, it has its bad side. The good side is I have a while [to be in the industry]. The bad side is, sometimes people tend to forget how old I am so I might do something a nineteen year old would do and they will look at me like “why is this guy acting like a kid” just because I’m around and doing stuff older people would do.
When & Why did you decide to pursue a professional music career?
This year [2011], in March.
Oh wow, but have you been musically inclined for a long time?
Of course, for years but I was in school in America so doing music in Nigeria was like no point if I’m over there. I used to record with my cousin. We used to have a group called “KB International”. We were just there recording, trying to make it over there. It didn’t work as planned but we made some moves though, we did a couple shows out there.
Did you leave school to pursue your professional music career?
No, I transferred schools [to one in Nigeria].
Ok, what are you studying?
Business management.
How did your parents & family feel about your decision to go into music professionally?
At first when I told my dad, “I want to come back to Nigeria” he was like, “for what, you better stay there and read” But after a while, you see for me, everything is action. You have to show them how much you want it. You have to show them that it’s working out. So I think that’s what lead him to understand what I’m doing because it was working out and he was seeing me on the TV, he’s seeing me at shows, I’m not asking for money no more. So his own is just that I have to stay in school which I understand. But it’s not easy balancing both, you know sometimes I’ll be in school and I have fans there so you know.
Are you signed to a label? (If so, what label)
Ya I have my own label called HKN.
What does that stand for?
Hakan which means Kings of Kings in Turkish.
What Genre or style would you consider your music?
I would say Fuji pop, afro pop, I try to do everything though but lately I’ve been having more inspiration from more cultural stuff. Like my last two singles you wouldn’t really hear much English, more broken English and Yoruba.
You first hit us with “Back When” featuring Naeto C earlier this year, how exactly did that collaboration come about?
My manager is Naeto C’s cousin so when we did the song & he heard it my manager convinced Naeto C to get on it.
VIDEO: Back When ft. Naeto C
So he (Naeto C) heard the song, he liked it, so he got on the song?
Ya, so then about two weeks later we did the video with Clarence Peters and kept pushing hard. In a few weeks the video was everywhere, MTV, Channel O, everywhere. That’s when the shows started coming in and then work, work, work.
So, you decided that you wanted to do music in March, and then you recorded your first single in March, Naeto C hopped on the track in March, and you dropped the song in March?!
And then everything started to blow and we’ve been “marching” on from there.
Let’s talk about your second single “Dami Duro”… I heard it was originally a freestyle & you turned it into a song, true or false?
I recorded Dami Duro in August. What happened was, I was in the studio, I had the beat so I freestyled on it and everyone was like “that shit hard”. I never touched the song for like 3 months and I sent it out to some friends. Before I knew it the songs leaked. So when it leaked I was like “alright I gotta rush and turn this into a single”.
Davido – Dami Duro