One of Nigeria’s early rappers, Eedris Abdulkareem has thrown more lights to the fight that ensued between himself and 50 Cent in 2004 on the latter’s visit to the country.
According to Eedris, this is one incident that changed the perception of Nigerian artists in the global space. In an exclusive interview with Objectv Media, Eedris explained how the organizers, Nigerian Breweries messed up the event for their selfish reasons. “They called me to tell me I’d be perfoming alongside 50 Cent, as Wyclef Jean just left the country, so they want to sell more shares by having a bigger show with me and Fifty”, the veteran rapper, said.
Prior to the show, Eedris said he had an agreement with the NBC organizing team that whatever treatment they are offering 50 Cent is what he’s getting and they obliged.
When the D-day came, Eedris was flown in a business class with 50 Cent when one of the latter’s bodyguards requested he vacates the seat as it’s meant for Fifty. Meanwhile, Eedris who was already feeling disdained cause he overheard one them referring to Nigerian as “murafuvkin africans”. The let to an altercation and Eedris was rough-handled by one of the bodyguards while his fellow Nigerian artists watched him.
When 50 Cent stepped in, he asked who he (Eedris) was – and he described himself as a Nigerian artist. “I sold 4.8 million copies in a pirated country!”, Eedris said boldly to Fifty but when the latter replied that the organizers never mentioned him as an artist rather as one of the workers here. At that point, it dawned on Eedris that he’s been sold out.
Describing the issue further, Eedris Abdulkareem said he put a call through to a number of people, one of them. Charly Boy who was then the President of PMAN came around to demand justice to the situation – what Eedris eventually believed turned out a selfish deal. “I never knew he was there on his purpose to get money from the Nigerian Breweries’, Eedris said.
Eedris strongly believes Charly Boy made a good sum from his beef with 50 Cent and his point to all contemporary artists in Nigeria is that they stand for themselves and refused to be treated like a piece of trash by any brand or international artist.
