Contrary to insinuation, Nigerian actor turned musician, Ray Emodi has clarified that he did not leave acting due to traumatic experiences or family pressures as some people have erroneously reported.
Speaking in a recent interview on TVC, Emodi revealed that he made the decision to switch his focus to music for a while, which he considers his true calling.
He said, “You said that I cited traumatic experiences and family pressures. But that’s not the reason I quit acting. I never quit acting. I stopped acting to focus on what my calling is, which is music. You get me?”
Emodi further explained that he had been writing and recording music since his primary school days.
“When I started acting, I already made music for about 10 years.
“I started writing music in my primary school years. This is a fact. I went to international Nursery and primary school, Enugu.
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“I went to LA for school, and every single place I went, I was recording music”, he said.
According to him, his decision to study acting in Los Angeles was a strategic move to secure a visa and pursue a record deal in the US.
“I came back to Nigeria in 2015, I went to LA to learn how to act, but that was a trick, actually. I probably shouldn’t say this on air. I had to get a visa to get into America to try to get a record deal.
“And you can’t get a visa to enter America for music school, but you can for acting school. So I got a visa to go study in New York Film Academy in Los Angeles campus, so I could try and get a record deal. That’s a fact.
“So that didn’t work out. I came back to Nigeria. I was still making music”, he added.
He said despite financial struggles with music he continued acting, “I dropped songs and stuff, but it wasn’t giving me money immediately.
“You know how it goes, right? So I had to use what I have to get some money, to pay studio time, pay producers, pay engineers, pay for videos, and I was acting.”
Emodi emphasised that he is not concerned with fame, but rather with making an impact through his music.
“But people know me from acting first. Yeah, that’s what gave me the fame.
“But the fame it gave me, music is going to give me more. And I don’t really care. I don’t really care about the fame. I don’t. I care about the impact. There’s a difference.
“Because with the impact comes the fame and the money and all that. You know, that’s not the main thing. The main thing is impacting the people’s lives”, he added.
