A slight but presumably settled altercation between respected lyricist, Modenine, and evolving femcee, Muna, at the just concluded ‘Nokia Don’t Break the Beat’ rap competition, became public mid-week, earning the former beauty Queen and her management company, RMG, a lifetime of opprobrium and invectives. The face-off was revealed in a video released this week by entertainment portal, Nigezie. While Muna was the host of the show, Modenine was the head judge alongside DJ Jimmy JATT and Knighthouse record label boss, Rogba Arimoro.
As the head judge, Modenine had cast his support for contestant T.K.O, ahead of Black Jeez but while he was adducing reasons for this, Muna kept interjecting, saying repeatedly, “I don’t agree with you, pass the mic(rophone).” The latter, a veteran hip hop head, pointedly tells Muna; “I’ve been listening to hip-hop for a long time. Trust me, you have to respect my opinion.” The audience watched in bemusement. Muna was not done as she replies curtly, “I’ve also been listening to Hip-Hop for a long time. I respect your decision but my opinion matters too. You know, please pass the mic(rophone) men.” There was silence in the audience. The other judges were obviously too stunned to talk. The montage of the video shows a visibly angry Modenine mouthing inaudibly.
In an interview after the show, Modenine says, “She was very disrespectful but I had to put her in check immediately. I was called here to judge because of my level of experience. A judge’s decision is final. She should have allowed other judges to talk before cutting me off. I’m very disappointed .”
Following suit was Jimmy Jatt who says, “It was wrong what she did. Judges are judges, comperes are comperes. I was just trying to play the role of an elder. It’s Modenine, for God’s sake and he sure knows what he was saying.” He says further that there were times that Muna went overboard but none of them queried her. While both parties had played down the incident which happened April 28th, the fact that the video went viral with Muna getting severe hate comments, prompted RMG to issue a statement signed by the founder, Ayo Shonaiya, which ended up festering the sore. “It has come to my attention that the unfortunate incident that occurred at the Nokia “Don’t Break The Beat” has turned into a media/blog frenzy. This unfortunate misunderstanding happened on stage, and the verbal exchange between Muna and Mode 9, even though it started out as opinions, quickly escalated into what I’m sure we all have seen in the clip posted on the Internet by Nigezie. Mode 9 and Muna did not have any pre-existing misunderstanding or “beef” before the Nokia event. Muna’s brief as a presenter, aside introducing the contestants and asking the judges for their remarks and scores, was to add more banter to the judging process. This she had done very well and incident-free throughout the Zonal “rap battles” in cities like Lagos, Enugu, Benin and Abuja.”
The widely pilloried statement, which many tagged as condescending and arrogant, continues, “As Muna’s management, we are duty-bound to take care of this situation professionally, issue statements and all that, but as I’m in a privileged position and I know all parties involved personally, including co-judges Rogba (CEO, Knighthouse) and DJ Jimmy Jatt, I had called everyone involved to sort out this unfortunate issue amongst ourselves the morning after the incident. The clip of the incident surfacing on the Internet only just re-ignited what we’ve been trying to diffuse since the very next day. We all have seen the video clip, and the interviews that followed, and of course, the onslaught of comments on the Internet, the justified, the objective, the insults, the threats of violence and of course a few sensible and supportive ones as well. Time will tell if Muna and Mode 9 trending on Twitter would prove to be a good thing and we’ll all get together and laugh about it later.”
According to Shonaiya, Muna is a fast rising talent in the rap game. He adds that this was recognised by Nokia who gave her the opportunity to appear in their TV commercial and also present the “Don’t Break The Beat” competition. The brand also showed some street cred(ibility) by employing the undisputed knowledge of rap in appointing Mode 9 as the Head Judge at the Finals. We would like to thank Nokia and the team at YDx for putting together a successful competition. Lastly, I would like to reiterate that this issue will not be resolved publicly and played out in the media or on blog pages for the amusement and enjoyment of gossip junkies and gist merchants. I’m sorry to disappoint those who are waiting with their mouths open, there will be no leaked emails, back and forth exclusive interviews or Twitter “gangsterisms”. At least not from our side, and as you all know, Mode 9 is big a man enough not to subscribe to media hype over something that, quite rightly, he took as disrespectful but not life threatening. This is Hip Hop, not the Civil War Part 2,” he adds.
Shonaiya, also a lawyer and filmmaker, would wish he didn’t issue the statement which he would later term ‘just a letter’ as the backlash on social networking sites and blogosphere has been vicious and unrelenting. When the heat became rather unbearable, perhaps, Muna surfaced on Twitter to apologise. “Modey, you know we had a chat, (we will do) face to face when I get back. But to put a stop to this madness, I’m sorry boo. I want us to be cool like before and as we were just before the Nokia show. Please accept my apology.”
source:punchng.com
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