Crayon: I gave up varsity education to pursue music after five UTME attempts

Crayon says he gave up university education after five attempts at the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to pursue a career in music.

In a chat with HipTV, the Mavin-signed singer said he couldn’t juggle music and school due to how stressful it is.

He said he had a conversation with his parents about doing music and his dad persuaded him to attempt UTME for the fifth time.

Cray said he was to study at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) but walked out of the exam hall on the day of the institution’s Post-UTME.

The singer said he met a music friend named Baby Fresh who inspired him to make a “big sacrifice” for his career.

“I won’t be able to juggle school and music at the same time because in Nigeria it’s quite stressful,” Cray said.

“I sat my parents down. I was like, ‘Mum and Dad, I want to make music.’ I said I feel like that’s what my heart is going for. My dad said just try this fifth one, if it doesn’t work out, you can go ahead and do music.

“So I met Baby Fresh already. It was just a moment when I had to make that big sacrifice.”

Crayon said he called a friend for support and lied to his parents about not being on the school’s admission list.

“I was in UNILAG writing my post-UTME and I walked out and everyone was just looking at me like, ‘Who is the guy? How?’ Like, ‘Why would you do this after waiting for so long?'” the singer said.

“I had to call my friend Julius. I was like, ‘I just did the craziest thing in my life.’ He was like, ‘You just told God you’re serious.’ So I just lied to my parents that I wrote the exam but my name didn’t come out.”

Crayon was born in Orile Iganmu, a community in Surulere, a suburb of Lagos state.

In May 2019, he was signed to Blowtime Entertainment, an imprint of Mavin Records.

The singer would later release his eponymous EP ‘Cray Cray’ in July 2019 and another ‘Twelve AM’ in 2021.