Chukwuka Ekweani popularly known as Ckay spoke of his journey to the limelight in an interview with Joey Akanthe music journalist.
Chukwuka Ekweani is signed to Warner Music South Africa.
He was formerly signed to Chocolate City, a member of Warner Music Group’s independent label services ADA.
The singer is known for his hit song ‘Love Nwantiti’ which was released in 2019.
In March 2022, the song debuted at number one following the launch of the Billboard Afrobeats chart.
In the interview, CKAY said he left his parents, who “wanted me to do anything else but music”, in Kaduna for Lagos to chase a career in music.
He said his family didn’t know better at the time, so they had opposed his choice of career.
“I literally was a young boy from Anambra state that came to Lagos, trying to make, it in music. The fact that all this is happening a few years down the line is a dream, come true for me,” the singer said.
“The amount of work that comes with it is so crazy that, most times, I even forget that my dreams came true.
“I’m so busy working that, sometimes, I have to stop and tell myself this is what I’d been dreaming about. But there’s so much work to be done that there’s hardly time to digest all that.
“I grew up in Kaduna where I left on November 3, 2014. I left because I wanted to pursue my dream of music but my parents weren’t encouraging. They had very different views on what I should be. We couldn’t come to agree.
“I imagined myself at the age of 40 regretting not chasing my dreams. That image didn’t look good. That’s why I left. They wanted me to do anything else but music. They understood I was a genius academically.”
CKAY said it was a producer friend of his who lived in Lagos that helped him settle in.
“I was always a straight-A student. But I never really saw myself doing engineering. I wanted to do a job that was well paid. I knew my parents would kill me but I had to move. I did. I was saving for two months,” he added.
“I was producing and making money but not much. Like N5,000, bigger than my pocket money. I had a friend who was producing in Lagos. He had an apartment. I came. He offered to have me in his place for a while.
“I booked a flight. My parents didn’t know I was leaving but, if they paid attention, they would have seen the signs. As much as I was disobeying my parents, I felt they didn’t know better. So I’d just do it and show them later.”
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