Veteran Nigerian singer and activist, Charly Boy, has revisited a remarkable moment from 2004 when he intervened in a confrontation between Nigerian rapper Eedris Abdulkareem and American hip-hop star, 50 Cent.
In the latest episode of The Honest Bunch Podcast, Charly Boy recounted how he received a distress call from Abdulkareem while he was styling his hair.
Abdulkareem informed him that he was being manhandled by 50 Cent’s bouncers at the Murtala Muhammed Airport.
Without hesitation, Charly Boy sprung into action, rallying a massive group of motorcyclists to the airport to support Abdulkareem. “Back then, if I waved my hand at the motorcycle park, all the motorcyclists would follow me. So, I stormed the airport with almost 3000 bikes,” he recalled.
“On getting to the airport, I asked Eedris to tell me what happened and he said he was booked for a show alongside 50 Cent and he went to sit in the first class in the plane where the rapper was and his bouncers asked him to leave that the first class space wasn’t for Nigerian artists but he refused, then they beat him up.
“They also beat his bouncer who tried to rescue him from them. 50 Cent was aware of what happened. After Eedris narrated his ordeal, I asked where 50 Cent was and they pointed to an SUV. So I went into the SUV to confront him.
“Already, 50 Cent’s security team was seeing the tension around the airport with the bike men moving around. I was also very high that day. I said to 50 Cent, ‘You are the one beating my people in their own country? You came to Nigeria and you are beating my people.’”
