Nigerian rapper Falz has opened up about his journey to becoming a musician, dispelling the notion that he was pressured to follow in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer.
In an interview with Chude Jideonwo on the ‘With Chude’ podcast, Falz revealed that growing up, he was inspired by the positive impact his father, Femi Falana SAN, had on people’s lives.
Falz explained that he aspired to emulate his father’s work, which motivated him to study law. However, he only practiced law for a short period, working at the Ministry of Justice during his youth service and later at his father’s firm.
He eventually left law to pursue music full-time.
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He said:
“I won’t say it was pressure but when I was super young, it was like, ‘These people have to be something’ because I was already getting that reaction everywhere I went. And if I ever mentioned my name, people would be like, ‘Which Falana? Is it Femi Falana? Oh wow.
“Everyone sort of had a story about how my dad came to their aid at some point in time and how he fought for them and was there for them. At that time it was me taking everything in, like, ‘this is something’. So at that point in time, I wasn’t pressured; I aspired to emulate what he was doing.
“I did practice law for a short period of time. Very short, almost two years. I worked at the Ministry of Justice during my youth service, which was like 2012 or so, then in 2013 I was at my father’s firm and 2014 was when things started to pick up for me so I started going out of practice”.