Today (Nov. 21), TMZ shared an interview with Davido, who recently earned three Grammy nominations for Global Music Album, Global Music Performance, and Best African Music Performance.
“First of all, shout out the Recording Academy. This is my first time being nominated, and it’s special to me because it’s also the first time African music is being recognized with our own category. You know, normally, we’re always in the Global category, but to have our own category, so exciting, so amazing,” said the Atlanta-born, Nigeria-raised talent in response to the achievement.
All three nods are thanks to last March’s release of Davido’s fourth studio LP, Timeless, and the singles “FEEL” and “UNAVAILABLE,” the latter of which featured Musa Keys. In addition to landing a Billboard 200 placement, the album peaked at No. 2 on Billboard‘s World Albums chart.
Davido also spoke on recently having twins with wife Chioma Rowland. “A boy and a girl. Beautiful… They’re five weeks now. Before they came, everybody was like, ‘Twins, twins, twins, you’re going to go crazy,'” he explained. “But they’ve been amazing to me and my wife, and calm, and just beautiful children.”
The international star added, “Recently, I’ve kind of toned it down with work, just being around my wife [and] helping her out. My aunties are around, my sisters, her sisters… We have a big family.”
Finally, TMZ’s reporter asked Davido about the differences between Afrobeats and R&B.
“That’s a good question because I have songs that sound R&B, you know what I’m saying? There are a lot of Nigerian artists back home that do like, basically, straight R&B. You have Johnny Drille, Chike, [and] Banky W.,” he stated. “Afrobeats, I feel like is the term used to describe us African musicians. I don’t think it’s the type of music we make or the style of music, ’cause if you think of a rapper in Nigeria like Odumodublvck, he’s doing straight drill hip hop. But because he’s African, we’ll call him an Afrobeats artist.” Davido also acknowledged Fela Kuti as the progenitor of that genre.