DAVIDO RECOUNTS HOW HE WAS MOCKED FOR BEING BLACK WHILE STUDYING IN US

According to Davido, after gaining admission to study in the United States, it was hard for him to settle in following the racial comments made about him and his country of origin.

The singer made this known during a chat with the Recording Academy, the body governing the Grammy Awards.

“Yeah, of course. It’s crazy, because I’m from both America and Africa, so I know how both sides think. I went to school in Alabama. I went to college at 15. I was very young. And Alabama was a predominantly white state. So being an African kid in a university where it’s 13% Black people, it’s amazing. It’s not easy,” he said.

 

“I had to learn a lot of the things when I was like, “Yo, why you look at me like that?” And not even just being Black, being African. They used to ask me questions like, “Yo, how’d you get to America?” I’m like, “What you mean? I came on a plane.” “Oh, y’all got airports?” Now every American wants to go to Africa.”

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“Everybody wants to know where they’re from. So it’s good to see the transition from not being appreciated, to being appreciated right now. Even with fashion. You got designers making African print fashion, so it’s not only music. The culture is being felt everywhere.”

The singer went on to talk about the Nigerian music industry and how it has become accepted globally.

“And once the Afrobeat come on, you can tell the difference from the scenery, the feeling, the beats. Most people don’t even know what we saying, but they still listen to it. So that’s the great thing about it,” he said.