Veteran producer and singer, Michael Collins Ajereh aka Don Jazzy has revealed that his role model while growing up in Ajegunle, was legendary musician Daddy Showkey. The Mavins record label boss said Daddy Showkey and “Dem go dey pose” crooner Baba Fryo were his inspiration to pursue music.

Don Jazzy started his music career in church as an instrumentalist because he couldn’t afford studio sessions.

The music executive disclosed this while featuring as a guest on the latest episode of the Leaderboard podcast hosted by Fisayo Fosudo.

He said: “My music inspiration started from Ajegunle because of dem Daddy Showkey, dem Baba Fryo, a lot of all these Ajegunle musicians that we looked up to.

“I used to tell my guys that when I started making music, I pretty much just wanted to blow and be Daddy Showkey because anywhere you went to in the country, you would hear, ‘If you see my mama, Hosanna’ or ‘Somebody call my name, Showkey.’

“Trust me, the lyrics are national anthems. I pretty much wanted to do that. So, I used to go to church and play instruments. It was the only place that you can….Unless you want to go to studios which would cost money. At that time, we couldn’t afford to have sessions.

“So, the best place that you can get free equipment is the church. Instead of doing the reggae, the reggae, you go and do gospel first”, he said.