Why Olivetheboy dropped out of KNUST to pursue music

Olivetheboy, born Joel Ofori Bonsu, has revealed his highest level of education was received at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ashanti region.

However, he confessed, "I didn't finish."

"I deferred it," the singer-songwriter added, explaining he was studying Metallurgical Engineering.

He chuckled when he was complimented for his braininess, allegedly evidenced by his being an engineering and science student.

"I attended OWASS (Opoku Ware Secondary School), where I studied General Science," he noted.

He was talking to the host of the Ayekoo Ayekoo midmorning show on Accra 100.5 FM, Nana Romeo.

Olivetheboy said, "At the beginning, it was unpleasant," for his parents when he dropped out of school to do music.

"I released my first EP in 2021, which was when I was in school, after senior high school. They were expecting me to be in school but I was in the studios. I didn't even tell them, the next thing they heard, I had released it," he narrated, adding: "It came with a lot of threats. They wanted to arrest me; even my own mum."

He observed, "They wanted to frighten me but like I said, it was not pleasant at the beginning. It was after a while we went to talk to them trying to convince them. Right now, she's a proud mum."

"I'm the firstborn," the singer-songwriter added, "so you can imagine, it was hard for them."

Revealing his mother is in her 40's, he said she came with my father and siblings, 'two girls', to the 2024 Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMAs) where he was honoured as the artiste with the Best Afrobeats Song of the Year (Goodsin).

He joked that, as a boy, he dreamed of being "a pilot, then a doctor, and now see what I am."

Returning to his family, he noted his mother is a singer, and "When I was a child, I would listen to her music – she recorded music with my father but they were not able to release it."

"Indeed, they had songs together," he revealed, "and because of this, I got to know about songwriting very early. And so, when I wrote my first verse, I was small. There were times I would go back to writing but it was not a thing for me until I went to SHS, and I started writing from there. That is when I fell in love with writing and everything."

Olivetheboy concluded by stating his first professional songs were cut at the studio of Beats Vampire.

"It was my EP, 'Avana'," the Asylum hitmaker explained.