Zanku dance pioneer, Temidayo Raphael, otherwise known as Zlatan, has disclosed that he wasn’t supposed to be an artiste.
Speaking during an interview, Zlatan said he was supposed to be a professional footballer, adding that being unable to gain admission into a higher institution on time changed his focus.
The music star said, “I wasn’t supposed to be an artiste. I was actually meant to be a professional footballer. But sometime in 2011, I didn’t make my papers to go to a higher institution, so I had to sit at home and rewrite my exams.
“While I was home, I got a call from a friend who didn’t do music before. He had a video, and I marveled because the guy sang in church choir the same way I used to drum in the choir. I was surprised he was now an artiste with his music video getting played on LTV [a popular local channel then]. So I told him to take me with him to the studio the next time he went, that I wanted to make music too. It started as an unserious thing ‘til it became serious.
“That’s how everything started for me. I remember my first song being called Hustling With Swag…”
Further explaining how music started professionally for him, Zlatan added: “I got admitted two years later to a Polytechnic, and before my first semester, in 2014, I won the Airtel-sponsored One Mic talent show held in Abeokuta, in the midst of about 140 rappers. I just said to myself that if someone that doesn’t have more than three shirts and two pairs of trousers can make it this far, then God definitely has a plan for me with the music. Ever since then, I took it very seriously; that’s what’s kept me going.”
