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Award-winning Nigerian rapper Zlatan Ibile has shared how his journey into the music industry began unexpectedly after he failed to secure university admission.
In a recent interview with Nandi Madida on Africa Now Radio on Apple Music, the ‘Zanku’ crooner revealed that what initially felt like a setback turned out to be the turning point in his life.
“I was supposed to go to university in 2011/12, but I did not have my complete papers. I failed mathematics and accounting, so I could not go to school that year,” Zlatan recounted.
With an entire year to wait before reapplying for admission, Zlatan said he found himself idle and looking for new interests to pursue.
Having been active in the church as a drummer and choir member, he said his passion for music started when a close friend, who had never recorded before, played him a song he had made.
“But like you said, I used to be a church boy,” Zlatan continued.
“So when I failed my examination and I couldn’t go to school, I started going to the studio. One of my friends just came back home from housing one day, and he played this song. And I knew him very well. I knew him from church. I knew that he has never made music before.
“We went to the studio, and then for the first time, I went on the microphone. It was so funny. And then I came back home. To me, the song was rubbish. It was not making sense. It was my first time.”
He said his siblings’ encouragement after hearing the song gave him the confidence to continue.
“When I went back home and I played it for all my siblings, and they started making me feel like Jay-Z that day,” he said, laughing.
Zlatan added that by the time he eventually gained admission into university, he was already drawn to making music, even though he had recorded only a few songs at the time.
“And then, I just started following my friend to the studio from there because I had to sit out one year before going back to school. And I didn’t have up to three songs,” he explained.
During his first semester, he registered for a campus rap competition — a decision that would mark a major milestone in his early career.
“I was loving the way people were carrying me, who is an artist now. So I went back to school one year after, and then my first semester in school, the rap competition came up,” Zlatan recalled.
“And then, I did not believe that anybody can actually win a car off music, off the kind of music I make. I did not even have up to five tracks.
“The songs were not mixed and mastered. They were just pre-recorded songs. That was the moment I started enjoying the rap. I started enjoying the rap then.
“So, the competition just came up when I was trying to get into this rap game. And then, to cut the story short, out of 140 candidates, I won the car.
“I won the car when I was 19 years old. Yeah, I was so amazed. This was my first semester in school. I have not even attended the first examination in the school. This was just three weeks into the school.”
Zlatan said the victory at that competition became the moment he realized music was his calling — transforming a failed exam year into the foundation of his successful career.
Watch him speak below…
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