Mp3bullet.ng presents Nigerian artists that began their musical journey in school.
When it comes to discovering one’s music talent, it can start from anywhere and for most Nigerian artists, the journey began in their school.
School is more than just a place where students can achieve academically, it’s also an excellent location to develop character.
It’s also a place where every child is supposed to figure out who he or she is and what they are good at.
Here is a list of some Nigerian artists that began their careers in music while still in school.
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Davido
When Davido was a first-year student at Oakwood University in Alabama, he met Jaymo, an American student whose influence completely shifted his focus to music.
With the help of Jaymo, he put $500 of his pocket money into buying musical instruments and started composing beats. He dropped out and went on to Babcock University in Nigeria, where he received his bachelor’s degree in music in 2015
Fireboy DML
Fireboy has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language from Obafemi Awolowo University. In his second year in school, in 2012, the Nigerian artist discovered a passion for music and began writing songs.
He became well-known among students after singing on campus. Despite the fact that he was passionate about music at the time, he admitted that he only found his voice in the last years of high school when he decided to devote his life to music.
His parents were first dismayed by his decision to pursue a career as a Nigerian musician, but they eventually became his biggest fans.
Falz
Falz studied law at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, where he graduated with an LLB Honors degree.
Falz started music as a hobby while in secondary school. He formed a music group with a friend called “The School Boys”. In 2009, he released a compilation of some of his recordings as a mixtape titled Shakara: The Mixtape.
He revealed in an interview that “the passion for music started building when I was in secondary school. Though the passion was there, I never thought it was something I was going to give serious attention until towards the end of my university days.
By then the music I was making appeared to be on a different level, assuming something of professional status. Then I realized I could make it a profession”.
M.i Abaga
M.I studied Business and Economics at Calvin College in Michigan, United States of America.
During his time in college, he began to dabble in poetry as a means of self-discovery. He later began to rap and freestyle, and he performed frequently at school social occasions.
He competed in the HipHopera campus tournament in 2003, and his excellent rap performance earned him a third-place finish.
Today, the Nigerian musician has carved out a desirable place in the Nigerian music industry as a prolific lyricist, vocalist, fearsome rapper, and producer.
Fela Kuti
Fela was sent to the United Kingdom by his parents to study law in 1958. Instead, he enrolled in Trinity School of Music to pursue a degree in music.
During his education, he decided to focus on the trumpet as his primary musical instrument.
Fela eventually joined a group of committed Nigerian musicians in the United Kingdom, where he performed in settings frequented by African students.
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Banky W
Banky W received a scholarship to study Industrial Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.
From his first year of school, the R&B singer began fostering the musical interest he had discovered when singing in his local church choir a few years before.
He started writing songs, going to the studio, producing them, and singing for money in salons.
He won Albany Idol, a music competition, and co-founded a record label called Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E) in 2002. . He returned to Nigeria after his studies in New York and founded E.M.E in Lagos in 2008.