“I Dropped Out of School & Slept In The Streets of Ghana Before I Made It” – Patoranking

Nneameka Okorie, better known as Patoranking, is one of Nigeria’s most celebrated reggae-dancehall artistes and by extension, Africa. But like many other success stories, the road to stardom wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.

Patoranking was recently in Ghana where he had an interview with Starr 103.5 FM. During the radio chat, he revealed that his music career actually started off in Ghana but it was pure struggle. In his words…

“I started music from my mum’s belly, but dancehall has always been something that I grew up listening to and it was perfected in Ghana.”

His first trip to Ghana, according to him, was in 2007 after he gained admission into Cape Coast University. A year after resuming school, he dropped out of Uni for financial reasons.

“I had to move from Cape Coast to Accra. I was sleeping on the streets of Osu just to make it. We must make am now…survival at all cost.

“The only option I had at that point was making it in life because I just had to change the course of my family, the face of my family you know…being the first child…I just say thank you Lord and to everybody that never doubted me. I pray for them still and we’re still together,” he said.

While grinding in the streets of Ghana, Patoranking met a young Ghanaian entrepreneur named Lanky in Osu who partnered with him to achieve his dreams.

Lanky started a production company called Black Rhythms Entertainment and made a few tracks with him, the songs enjoyed some airplay but it was difficult to break through in Ghana so he returned to Nigeria and the rest, as they say, it history