Interview with KING DAVIID

How did you come up with your stage name?

K: So initially I wanted to go with my ordinary name, because I felt it was spectacular enough for me to just use like that, but then when I came to Canada, I realised everyone kept butchering my last name. My full name is actually David Akinyemi, but I just had to go with my first name. 'David' is just too common of a name, so I tried to look at different characters that I could relate to that would would give me the inspiration to come up with things, and one person that stood out to me was David from the Bible, I'm actually a Christian too. So I decided to go by KING DAVIID. But you might notice that the spelling of KING DAVIID has two 'I's, and it's stylised in all capitals a well. That was because when I uploaded my music to Spotify for the first time, there were like four other 'King David's, so it was either I picked a different name, or just slightly modify it. Coincidentally, I saw this video of Desiigner about how he ended up having two 'I's in his name, and it was almost a similar scenario which was putting and extra 'I' in his name. Rather than chasing a different name, I just added another 'I' to my name.

How would you describe your sound?

K: I would say it's become very heavenly since I started moving up until now, because at first, I had no sense of identity. I wouldn't really identify nor associate my personality with my music; I was just trying to make something that sounded nice regardless of what direction that was going to go in. However, I then read this book by Kevin Hart, I Can't Make This Up: Life Lessons, where he spoke about how he first started from comedy clubs and how he had that raw talent to make people laugh, but he met someone who told him that he wasn't going to make it very far if he didn't get personal about the things he spoke about. That created the Kevin Hart we know today. A similar transition has helped bring me to where I am now, where my music speaks about my emotions towards certain topics, so if you hear a song from me, it's exactly what was going through my mind at that point in time. That's basically what my music is about.

Follow up question, would you put yourself in a particular genre?

K: I would say for the sake of simplicity, especially for listeners, I would say a healthy mix between Hip-Hop and RnB.

What's your favourite song of yours that you've put out, and what's the story behind it?

K: I would say my favourite one, not necessarily the best one in terms of production or quality of music, but my favourite in terms of what I was talking about, is probably 'Tricks' because when I made that song it was the turning point in terms of identifying the kinds of things I wanted to speak about in my music. It mostly talks about how I'm coming to meet my parents and my family to say that music is not just a hobby to me, but a part of my life; it's synonymous with who I am, not just a running factor and they needed to accept that. So in the big picture, it's my favourite because it's the turning point moment in my life story and my journey so far.

Who are your top three artists of all time?

K: Number one, without a doubt in this life, is Travis Scott. Number two most definitely would be Kendrick Lamar. Number three is always an uphill battle, or a roundabout based on the situation or time I'm in, but I'd say right now, I would actually put Drake there. Let me explain: firstly, Travis Scott is the only artist who has 100% struck a chord in terms of my music taste. When I say struck a chord, I mean the kind of music he makes perfectly fits the kind of music I wanted to listen to and it was pretty bizarre because I was looking for that particular style to listen to before I even found out about Travis Scott.

Kendrick Lamar is one of the most sophisticated artists I've ever come across in my life. He's the kind of person where I have to listen to the song three times over and each time, I'm always getting something new; it's like reading a book! That's literally what it feels like to me when I listen to his albums, that's why I love him so much. He's like in a world of his own.

Drake, I would say, first of all, he's very open and genuine about what he speaks about. Secondly, his ability to have remained consistent for so long is actually a life story I'm trying to study myself; how to be able to remain relevant for so long, apart from just music, which is one thing I think he is heavily under-appreciated for. And thirdly, how he's able to heavily influence so people at any point in time.

Who would you say are your biggest influences in music?

K: I would say for my biggest influences, a major one right now is Mr Eazi. The reason why I say that is because I love how he portrays and created such a strong brand for himself in terms of his music, and he has a very unique identity. I also like how heavily involved and invested he is in the business aspect of his music. That's one thing that I would like to have for myself - to be someone who is a musical entrepreneur. That's the profile I want to fit into. Another person of course is Drake, because I also live in Canada and he is a major staple here and all over the world, like he's a strong pioneer for all of us in this part of the world. He's one person that if you are anybody that is anybody, especially in this country, you'd have crossed paths with him at some point. And a major one of course, Travi$ Scott, but that influence is more in terms of my sound itself. I think what's inspiring is that he did what he wanted to do even though initially it might have been confusing for most people; a lot of people at the start would probably say stuff like "Nah Travi$ Scott is bad, he's just singing in autotune and shouting, he's not even making sense in anything he says," but he still stuck with it, he pushed that thing harder than ever. I feel sad at the fact that he's barely gotten any awards with the quality of the music he has.

What does music mean to you?

K: I feel like music is something that should be able to make you cry; something that you can attach some sort of emotion to. In my opinion, if there's no particular emotion you can identify and single out when you tap into a piece of music, that's not quality music. It could either be extreme happiness, extreme madness, extreme sadness, extreme joy...whatever kind of emotion it is, you should be able to identify it and attach it to the music. For me, it's something I can listen to and it's almost like it's speaking a different language. That is when I know the music is directly speaking to me, and the fact that I cannot understand it shows that it just has that unique spark in my mind. That's what quality music means to me.

One of my favourite concerts that I've been for was actually a Nav concert; that was last summer. And thats when I truly understood that music for me isn't just something that you could bring to the world or your household. The very fact that people would want to leave their houses to come and stand, buy raincoats right there on the spot (it was raining that day too), bring their backpacks, power-banks and buy lunch, just to jump about for one hour and make somebody's month or somebody's whole year, and spend so much money just to come and experience that. That's when I started to feel like music was maybe actually a drug. I think it's something you can actually get addicted to in that sense, and it's very hard to describe. It reminded me of times when I would stay up listening to music, especially classical music and how it has that deep intricacy. It moves hairs on your body or sparks neutrons in your brain or your nervous system without you even knowing. So to me, it's a way of potentially OD-ing.

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to get into music right now?

K: First thing I would say is that I can only give advice up until the point I have achieved myself. I'm not going to give you advice on how to be in the top 10 on the Billboard charts, because I've never achieved that myself. I'll just start by putting out that disclaimer.

One thing I can then say is that you will, undoubtedly, receive a bit of backlash from certain angles, whether from people in your school, your own friends, potentially even your own family, and that's when you need to establish a deeper "why" in regards to why you want to do it. See life as bundle of different struggles we face. Which struggle are you willing to chose for yourself, knowing that you're actually going to enjoy that struggle? Either way, you're going to struggle somehow. If you're looking at the process through which you want to get to that top level, stop looking at the end goal. Don't see someone like the Weekend and be like "I want to be like that guy there". The Weekend is even still struggling as he is now in some certain aspects. He's been going through some financial dilemmas, relationship dilemmas, all sorts. If you're not willing to go through those struggles, then don't even think about jumping into it in the first place. Find a struggle that is reasonable for you to cope with.

Also, a piece of advice that my sister gave me: quality is the best marketing strategy. Don't try and jump out and say, "I want to feature with this person, I want to release this album, I want to do this EP" when you've barely even spent time developing your own craft and sound, something that is unique to you, that people can associate with you. It's annoying at the start because you're eager, you're hungry, you have a lot of excitement; but you have to let that die down enough for you to actually get anything done and be patient enough to develop yourself. Wait until people start asking you, "why haven't you done this?" or "why haven't you done that?" Don't let yourself feel too confident and just jump into things. Don't be bamboozled like that.

Third thing I would say is to make music during the daytime. I see a lot of people say "Oh I'm only a night time person. I like it when it's dark and mellow, I can really enter the zone then." My argument is that your creative juices biologically speaking are actually more active in the daytime, especially after you've just woken up. Not saying you should write first thing in the morning, but really take advantage of that. Also, take breaks in between your process and try to meet as many people that would entertain you as possible because they can bring up questions that you wouldn't think about yourself.

Lovely advice. So, can we expect anything from you in the near future?

K: I have a song coming out with my friend, D.O.A to the World, titled 'Broski' to be released sometime next month; and then eventually, I'm planning on releasing an EP - either in August or September. It includes that song.

Okay, thank you David!

Interview done and written by Oluwadara Apampa

*This interview has been edited for clarity.

Follow KING DAVIID on social media to stay updated on his journey!

Instagram: david.akinyemi

Twitter: hailkingdaviid

TikTok: kingdaviidisbvck