Rapper Busta Rhymes nearly cancelled the Abuja leg of his Star Megajam performance last weekend, after he discovered his international passport was missing.
The hip hop veteran was visibly upset and troubled, and threatened not to go ahead with his performance, after he searched for his American passport, and told his aides it appeared the passport was missing.
His mood changed and his temper rose. No one knew what drama would follow.
It was early afternoon on Saturday December 12.
”I’m going to have somebody shot tonight”, an upset Busta screamed, before calling his people and telling them he wasnt going ahead with the show if he couldn’t find his missing passport.
”He remembered the last time he saw it was in the car that took them to the hotel, so he told everyone he suspected the driver”, a source who was present told nigeriafilms.com.
Busta, Ludacris and the rest of the Star Megajam crew arrived Abuja shortly after noon, aboard a Chartered Arik Air flight, last Saturday. A Range Rover vogue took Busta and Luda to Transcorp Hilton hotel where they stayed with their crew.
And it was while disembarking at the hotel, that the rapper’s passport fell from his lap, according to an eye witness.
”A member of his entourage picked it up, hoping to give it to him later”, our source told us.
”The guy came back and saw Busta going wild. Then he told him. ‘I got your passport; it fell in the car”.
Relieved, but embarrassed, Busta reportedly tried to find the driver to offer apologies, but promoter Sheila Okonji promised to apologise on his behalf.
”It wasn’t funny you know”, said one of the organisers who didn’t want her name mentioned. ”Busta losing his passport in Nigeria”
A day before, at the Polo grounds in Lagos, Busta Rhymes gave a good account of himself.
Thankfully, his ‘lost-and-found’ passport drama didn’t diminish his Abuja performance. The veteran showed he’s still the master of the game, as he treated fans to hit after hit; dipping his hands into a repertoire of hits from the eighties through the nineties and 2000s. Together with his hypesman Spliff Star, the rapper worked the crowd, engaged in call-and-response, and gave the crowd-and the organisers- thumbs up.
Busta Rhymes showed the fans love. And they threw it right back at him. Even Nigerian stars Djinee, MI, Jesse Jagz, Baba Dee and Wande Coal rocked his set – fixing their gaze on his stage, looking like they were taking performance lessons from one of the world’s greatest.
Sadly, Ludacris didn’t have Busta’s impact on the audience. The ‘king of the South’ who appeared before Busta, dished out cut after cut: ‘pimping all over the world’, ‘you is a hoe’, ‘area code’, ‘pop champagne’, ‘i wanna lick’ and more; but his performance was lack-lustre and he and his band failed to connect with the audience.
Busta Rhymes left Nigeria early Sunday while Ludacris departed the country around 10PM local time.
Here is the question: must the promoter Sheila Okonji apologise on Busta Rhymes behalf?
