Nigerian comedy star, Bright Okpocha popularly known as Basketmouth has reacted to colleague, Ayo Makun aka AY’s revelation about why their relationship turned frosty.
Recall that AY said their relationship turned sour years ago after Basketmouth refused to pay N30,000 due to him after a performance.
“In 2006, this “beef” that is for you to know where it is coming from. He (Basketmouth) unusually would get gigs because when you are the rave-of-the-moment, you can get multiple gigs. On a Saturday, maybe two, or three weddings. What he would do at that point in time was to attend one, then at some point, leave the venue and catch up with the other venue but you would need somebody to stand in for you. That was the opportunity I got from him at the time, which I am very appreciative of till date.
“Now, something funny happened, one of the gigs per se, I got his endorsement to go stand in for him. Usually, what we get that time is N30,000, and that amount of money was everything to me. It would buy me my pack of noodles, recharge card, fuel for my car and generator. I would also avail myself of the opportunity to pay one or two people to do one or two skits that I can quickly put out. So, I got this job but the people were not too happy to see me at the venue because they were expecting Basketmouth.”
He continued, “Long story short, the guy was later happy with my performance and there was an exchange of numbers and I left. This gig came through one of Basketmouth’s guys. Two weeks running, I had not seen N30,000 and I was starving; as a bachelor, nothing. So, I decided to ask for N30,000 and he (Basketmouth) said the person had not paid. I called the person and said I thought they were happy about the performance; they should give my oga the money so that he can settle me.
“For me, I don’t care if you give Basketmouth N100,000 for the job but I care about my N30,000. It was very funny to hear from them that the full payment had been made long before the event. Basket now sent me a message saying what kind of stupid talk is the person saying that they have given him money. I was now in the middle. So, I forwarded their messages to each other. They now started fighting each other,” AY told media personality, Chude Jideonwo in an interview that went viral this week.
In a video that surfaced on Saturday, Basketmouth said he did not want AY to hear from him.
He said this during a recent show where his audience urged him to react to AY’s comments.
Asked about the N30,000 incident, Basketmouth said, “You all want to hear my side of the story. The thing is, to be honest, I would have loved to talk about that, trust me, I would love to talk about it; but the truth is, some people will record it and the thing would leak. Then, people would say that I have responded. Whereas, I no want make that guy ever hear me.” (sic)