SOMETHING HUGE CAME UP (ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY)

Good Day. Ladies & Gentlemen of the Nigerian Online Community.

The first year anniversary of "Something Huge Came Up" is here. We felt that it was appropriate to pay our respects to this momentous moment in Nigerian Twitter & Entertainment History. Before we begin, it is important to explore the origins of the phrase "Something Huge Came Up" and show when it was first used in Human History. 

The phrase "Something Huge Came Up" was first used by Adam in the Garden of Eden when God asked him "Bros why you and your woman chop the fruit when I specifically tell una not to chop am?". Adam replied "Something Huge Came up". The phrase was also used in 700 B.C when a young Carpenter called Joseph came home to find his Virgin wife Mary with child and asked her "How cometh thou upon the belle that you now carrieth?". Mary replied with "Something Huge Came Up". 

As you all can see, the phrase has been used at various times in human history. However, the term did not come to prominence in Nigerian History until the Summer of 2012 when a Wizkid Concert scheduled in California got cancelled with the excuse "Something Huge Came Up" by the Tour Manager. For the purposes of this post the tour manager shall be aptly called as Mr. T. It is important to map out a timeline of how we came to the use of this phrase and in order to do that, we must trace back our steps to the fateful day of Saturday July 14th 2012. 

On that day yours truly, got a phone call from Mr. T asking whether yours truly would be interested in hosting a Wizkid Concert in California seeing as Mr. Wizkid at that time, was planning a United States Tour. I was initially skeptical, because the previous summer Mr. Wizkid had planned a summer tour and had been forced to cancel it due to the fact that the U.S Embassy denied him Visa. As an event planner, there is nothing more terrible than promoting an event and having to cancel it with one excuse or the other. Any cancellations or failed events make a big dent on your brand name. With that skepticism in mind, I asked Mr. T to give me his word that Wizkid would indeed perform in California and he would not flake on us like the last time. Mr. T gave me his word and after the phone call preparations for the concert began in earnest. The concert was scheduled for Friday August 17th 2012 and the performers were going to be Wizkid and Skales. With all this in mind, promotion for the concert began, i and my team went around California promoting the biggest concert of the summer. I would be lying if I said man pikin wasn't looking forward to this concert b, not only had I promised babes back stage passes I was hoping to score some chicks for myself as in "head nigga in charge" parolzz. 

Fast forward to the Monday night August 13th, Mr T gave me a call and dropped the biggest bombshell of the summer. "Fam, Something Huge Came up we have to cancel the concert for this coming Friday". (I kid you not, this nigga cancelled a concert by saying "Something Huge Came Up).  I'm pretty used to handling disappointments and so I took this disappointment pretty well, I tried to reason with him on why he should not cancel the concert but his mind was pretty much made up. After I got off the phone with Mr. T, I had two main concerns. The first was "I had just lost all the pussy I hoped to get with this event. The second was, "I hope these uppity ass EME niggaz were planning to refund people for the tickets they had bought". I was especially concerned that they would not refund the money for the tickets, because the previous year after they had cancelled the concert after Wizkid was denied Visa they had not refunded any ticket money to people who had bought tickets to attend the show. They didn't have a good track record to begin with. 

In order to make sure they refunded the money to ticket buyers, we mounted a twitter/online campaign for the next three days to get them to refund the ticket money to the people in our beloved state who had bought tickets to see Mr. StarBoy aka Mr. Wizkid. After the first day of going off on twitter like a man possessed, I got a call from Mr. W the CEO of EME who expressed his disappointment that they were unable to make it to the show and promised to make it out to California the next summer. I thanked Mr. W for his call and promised to stop going off on twitter and wait for him to tweet a "press release" taking all blame so there would be no backlash on my promo company. Mr. W told yours truly that he understand how yours truly felt, and that he would be mad as well if somebody had cancelled on him. Yours truly thanked Mr. W for understanding and promised to shut the fuck up on twitter and not burn any more bridges. After getting off the phone with Mr. W, yours truly had some time to reflect on said conversation. See when a man tells you, "I understand how you feel" it's way different than when he says to you "I know how you feel". And if I'm being honest, I did not want Mr. W to "understand how I felt", I wanted him to "Know how it felt". I wanted him to know how it felt to see all your hard work come crashing down and see your brand take a hit because somebody else would not keep their word and stick to a deal. Suffice it to say that I did not keep my word to Mr. W, I and my team kept on with the twitter campaign of 'slandering that nigga and his label till they refunded the people of California the money for our tickets'. At first, it seemed like our campaign was not working, none of the Nigerian blogs were paying attention to our plight, and none of them would carry our story. On the third day of the campaign, word came to yours truly that Mr. W had told a female friend of his that she should not bother buying tickets to the California show because they never planned on coming. Text Screen shots were provided that showed said female friend expressing to another 'individual' why she didn't buy tickets to the California show because she knew Wizkid and co never planned to show up. After said screen shots were published, all the Nigerian Blogs picked up the story and accused Mr. W and his label of Fraud. (If at anytime you doubt this story , go on google and type in 'Banky W. U.S Fraud Scandal). As the news of this alleged fraud spread like wild fire, Mr. W gave yours truly another call and this call was slightly #howdoIputthisdelicately laden with cuss words that would make a New Yorker blush. Mr. W expressed outrage that yours truly had released the said screen shot and accused yours truly of going back on my word to stop with the "twitter campaign" and furthermore, accused yours truly of seeking to destroy a brand that he had worked so hard to build. What was most amusing about this angry rant by Mr. W was how 'disgusted' he was that yours truly had gone back on my word to stop with the twitter campaign. Apparently, yours truly was 'less of a man' for failing to keep to my word. See the funny thing about this exchange was, at no point did Mr. W note the irony in his own statement. He failed to note that it was him and his team who had indeed gone back on their word, their word that had been given on Saturday July 14th, 2012. That same word that they had broken with the phrase "Something Huge Came Up". When Mr. W and Co break their word, it falls under the roof of "something huge came up". When yours truly and his team break their word it falls under the "Have you no honor? *Spartacus Voice*.
 Suffice it to say that by the end of that day, all the refunds for the show was wired to our bank account and in exchange for damages and refunds, Mr W and co requested that my team put out a press release absolving them of all wrong doing etc etc etc. This whole saga showed me the lengths a man would go to protect his reputation when he feels his entire brand is being threatened. It reminded me of a quote that states "Many a Man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street". Suffice it to say that Mr. W's reputation and character would not recognize each other if they met on the street of Ebutte Metta". (I use the word Suffice tomuch, yeah nigga that's my new word.)

What did We learn from this Saga:  

1. Always demand a contract in any business transaction. 

2. If that nigga a Nigerian, demand  two contracts. 

3. If that nigga Nigerian and Yoruba, sign 5 contracts. LMAO (I kid. I kid ). 

4. The masses are extremely fickle. It always amused me how a bunch of people would message me privately asking me to take Mr. W to court and these were people you would think were cool with his label. Never rely on the crowd for anything because they are fickle. The same bloggers who had initially refused to carry the story so as not to offend Mr. W and Co, ran to carry the story when they realized it could no longer be ignored after the screen shots were released. Bloggers who would "famz" with said label never once bothered to verify whether any of the allegations against Mr. W and co were true, they did not care. 

5. A great man once said "they love you then they hate you then they love you again" - Wale

6. Quote: "Fame is an illusive thing / here today, gone tomorrow. The fickle, shallow mob raises its heroes to the pinnacle of approval today and hurls them into oblivion tomorrow at the slightest whim; cheers today, hisses tomorrow; utter forgetfulness in a few months."

7. When we released the press release absolving Mr. W and Co of all wrong doing, the same bloggers who had been in our own corner shouting for us to take the music label to court. Those same bloggers turned around and came after yours truly, going after me like they had gone after Mr. W just a few days earlier. Fickle I tell ya. Fickle. 

8. For many centuries, many philosophers have struggled with the age old puzzle of the "Meaning of Life". See we may not know the meaning of life. However, what we do know is that "THIS LIFE IS JUST A POT OF BEANS".