His first endorsement was with an energy drink called Power Fist.Īs a tribute to his mentor Fela, D’banj uses a fusion of Afrobeat and Afropop to bring his music to life and into the 21st century with breathless enthusiasm as well as a good dose of humour. It became an instant hit,and gained wide acclaim across the country.

That same year came the single “Tongolo” the video was paid for by D’Banj’s mother. “It was OK, because I did nights,” he says, “so I could listen to music on my headphones.”ĭon Jazzy told D’Banj he thought he was a star in the making, and sensing that the music scene in Nigeria was “blossoming”, the pair returned to Lagos in 2004.

D’Banj started hanging around the studio, making ends meet while working as a security guard. Plans to continue his studies as a mechanical engineer in London were derailed when he arrived in the UK in 2001, and met Don Jazzy who was trying to make it as a songwriter and producer. “I’d go to the female hostel after lectures, and even if there was no electricity I could play there.” He remembers learning Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” after Titanic came out – “and that got me a lot of girls!”Ĭheckout➥ Oliver De Coque - Born Singer - mp3ĭ’banj then proceeded to the Lagos State University to study mechanical engineering, but due to the constant strikes and several irregularities in the school he decided to withdraw. I’d play it to remember him.” Later, at university, he realised what his new skills with the instrument could bring him. įollowing the death of his 17-year-old brother, D’banj arranged all his possessions on his bed after they were brought home and just picked up his harmonica. With D’banj’s love for music being greater than his parents’ military aspirations, he struggled for his parents’ approval this can be best heard through an album track, All Da Way from his debut album. There he completed his secondary school education.ĭ’banj was introduced to the harmonica by his late older brother, Femi Oyebanjo, who died in a plane crash at age seventeen. From the Nigerian Military School he proceeded to another military owned institution Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Ibara, Abeokuta where he was a church worker. While at the Military school he was a member of the elite drum corp of the Nigerian Army. However, D’banj resisted the system and disenrolled from the school after three years. D’banj was expected to follow his father’s military career and was enrolled to the Nigerian Military School at age eleven. Due to his father’s profession he moved several times within Nigeria and later moved to England. D’banj, also known as the Kokomaster or Bangalee, was born in 9 June 1980 in Zaria, the northern part of Nigeria to a military officer who commanded an artillery regiment and a devout church dignitary businesswoman who hailed from Shagamu in Ogun State.

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