Afrobeats singer Davido has shared insights into why his billionaire father, Chief Adedeji Adeleke, intervened in his first professional recording deal. In 2011, Davido signed a contract with Black Diamond; however, after playing his father a snippet of the music video for his hit song “Dami Duro,” his dad decided to buy him out of the recording agreement.
Davido explained that his father’s motivation for this decision was to ensure that he owned the masters of his music. This revelation came after his former record label boss, Tosin Ashafa, recounted how he had facilitated Davido’s first professional deal and described Chief Adeleke’s reaction to it.
While participating in a trend on X that encouraged users to share their “most random music fact,” Ashafa tweeted, “I signed @davido to his 1st Official contract under Black Diamond Promotions with Cecil Hammond/another silent partner. We hired @GodwinTom to manage him. Dr. Adeleke realized David was really serious about pushing his music without him, reached out to us, and bought us out.”
In response to Ashafa’s tweet, Davido expressed his gratitude, stating, “So much respect to you guys for allowing me to walk!! Just know you were part of something that turned out to be phenomenal!!”
An X user, @Choiji_ES, mistakenly claimed that the incident occurred in 2019. However, Davido clarified, “No, I signed the contract in 2011. It was a good contract, not bad! But daddy wanted me to have 100 percent of whatever I was doing! Especially after I played him the first cut of the ‘Dami Duro’ video in his office! He knew it was game time!!!”
Following his father’s intervention, Davido and some family members established HKN Music. He later departed from HKN Gang to create his own record label, Davido Music Worldwide (DMW).
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