Eldee ‘The Don’ announced his mother’s demise on Instagram, and it came with caption ‘Rest well mom’.
Nigerian veteran rapper, Eldee ‘The Don’, took to Instagram to announce the demise of his mum.
The rapper who has been getting consolation messages from family, friends and loved ones, captioned the photo he shared;
Rest well mom. 💔💔😢😢❤️❤️❤️🙏🏾
Recall that Eldee in an interview with Vanguard in 2011, said his mum who was a banker, supported his music career, paid for everything right from the studio sections to the recordings, equipment and studio office.
Here are excerpts from the interview Eldee granted;
What was growing up like for you?
Growing up was alright. I came from a relatively average background. My mother worked in a bank and my father was an Engineer. It was fun growing in Kaduna because the place was quiet and without stress. And I think growing up there helped me develop my creative skills.
My father was very strict while my mother was laid back and it helped create a balance. The kind of values I was raised it where the conservative one. As a matter of fact, I was very naive until I got to Unilag. Like when I was in secondary school, my mother used to drive me to parties and wait outside till everything was over. I guess she understood not allowing me to run wild. But my grades right from primary to secondary school were very good, I was an all-A student. So, she didn’t really have an excuse for not letting me do other things. She was the one who paid for everything right from the studio sections to the recordings, equipment and studio office.
Having said your upbringing was conservative, how did you cope in UNILAG?
I think it was already too late to break out and become a crazy person when I got to Unilag. My parents had done all the job of containing my madness as a child. First of all, I didn’t want to go to Unilag or even come to Lagos. I wanted to go abroad to school but my dad insisted that I stayed back. So when I was in Unilag, I was an introvert. And for the first couple of years, I didn’t want to go out and do any other things or mix with people.
I was in my own little world. Anytime I left class, I’d go to my room. Because of that, one of the things I did to keep myself busy was music and that was how it became easy for me to do Trybes Men. That took my time away from all other craziness that others did. Also, Unilag was a harsh culture shock for me because I wasn’t used to their ways of doing things. Coming from a neighbourhood like Kaduna where everyone takes care of the other, no one stole your things.
So, I started learning those harsh things. In Unilag, everyone was just fake, pretending to be what they’re not and it made me feel weird but I had to deal with it because it’s part of growing up. I’m sure back then, music was just a passion.
At what point did you discover you wanted to do it professionally?
When I was in Unilag, music was something I used to get away from other craziness around me. So, anytime I listen to Nigerian music on radio, I always thought we could do better. Back then there was a lot of reggae and I felt we could create our own sound. Then I decide to fuss somethings together. And when I started recording and people heard it, they liked it because it’s different. It encouraged me and I decided to do it big, that was way back in 1997.
