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Popular Nigerian comedian, actor and film producer, Bright ‘Basketmouth’ Okpocha has remained silent over his 17-year-old rivalry with colleague, Ayo ‘AY’ Makun.
Basketmouth has refused to deny or affirm claims or alleged causes of the rivalry, which many fans and audiences have tagged a beef.
According to an industry source, the beef between Basketmouth and AY was ignited many years ago and it has continued to wax stronger despite several efforts to end it. The source claimed that it all began when Basketmouth gave AY a show and he refused to pay for the show. When AY allegedly asked for his pay, Basketmouth allegedly claimed he hadn’t been paid but the client informed AY he had paid Basketmouth on enquiry.
Giving credence to the claims, Ayo Makun recently opened up on the 17-year-old rivalry.
He said, “In 2006, he (Basketmouth) usually would get gigs like weddings because you know when you’re the rave of the moment you can get multiple gigs on a Saturday, it may be two-three weddings, so what he would do at that point in time was to go and attend one then maybe at some point leave this venue, catch up the with other one and then you would need somebody to stand in so that was the opportunity I got from him at that time which I am very appreciative of till date.”
Continuing, he said, “something funny happened, one of the gigs that I got his endorsement to go and stand in. Usually, what I’d get at that time was N30,000 and it was everything to me at that time. It would buy me my pack of indomie, recharge card, fuel for my I better pass my neighbour generator and opportunity to pay one or two people to join me for one or two skits that I can just quickly put out. I got this job but the people weren’t too happy seeing me around the venue because they were expecting Basketmouth to come, long story short, the guy was later happy after the performance, there was an exchange of numbers so I left.
“This gig was also given through one of his (Basketmouth) guys so two weeks running I haven’t seen my N30,000 and I was starving so I decided to ask him and he said they haven’t paid. I called the guy and told him to pay my boss since you told me you were impressed. It was very funny to realise that the payment had been made prior to the event, I had to forward the guy’s message to Basket and visa-vise. I didn’t do that because I wanted to get at Basketmouth, I did that because I was hustling and hungry so if I had gotten another N30,000 o probably would forfeit this one that I think I worked for. So the masker said that’s it, for this thing that AY did I’m not gonna work with him anymore and our path will not cross.”
The Nation reliably gathered that the beef between Basketmouth and AY is glaring in the Nigerian comedy space such that newbies have come to terms with the realities such that once you belong to one caucus, you can’t identify with the other caucus.
In the same vein, the Nigerian comedy doyen, Alibaba has been unable to squash the beef between the two successful comedians after many tries.
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