By Oladapo Salami
The venue was Abakaliki Township Stadium in the normally quiet town of Abakaliki on Saturday June 17. With only hours to go until Flavour, M.I, Naeto C and J Martins hit the main stage for the nationwide Star Trek 2012, the audience started to troop in in their hundreds.
The show began as scheduled by 7pm, with talented DJ Tony Blaze rocking the audience till 10 as they continued to increase in number. MC Gideon Okeke also anchored this edition, as he did the previous day at Awka. By 10pm, over 3000 people were already in the stadium gearing up for the show. DJ Tony Blaze kept going on and on, dropping contemporary joints. A little after 10pm, Gideon called out five men for a dance competition to offer the best two dancers slots in the VIP section. He did the same for the ladies, to the pleasure of the crowd.
By 11pm, MC Gideon was calling upcoming acts to come perform, starting with Zika, who quickly got the audience to sing along as he threw out his CDs to frenzied fans. Next up was Simi-jay, who sadly didn’t do as well as Zika, and was promptly booed off stage. After that was the duo of DeKings, immediately followed by femcee Cisca, who wowed the crowd with her funny dance steps and upbeat song.
Next up was the charismatic PI-SMOOTH, then Artman, who was dressed in a fancy native regalia. Jaykz came next, followed by ‘FP’ who looked like a wizkid with his hoodie. Coming up next after him was another duo – Flamez, followed by Lady Natural.
As soon as all the upcoming acts wrapped up their segment, Gideon called on stage MC Whale-man (winner of AY-Live 2012) to ease up the audience with a few laughs here and there.
After him, one of the new discoveries of the show – BMG stepped on stage. He was noticed at the Benin edition of the show, where he wowed the audience by performing a lot of old and new school joints on a single hip hop instrumental. When asked about the show, he said ‘It’s really been great to have been discovered by the organisers, and I believe this is a stepping stone for me.’ He added ‘there’s plenty more I have to give and I expect God willing that I can successfully shoot out my career on the big stage via Star Trek’
Next up was Crystals, who performed their rendition of Beyonce’s ‘who run the world’ and some of their other songs. Their performance was top notch, as it was in Awka.
At exactly 12:10am, the host, Gideon, announced the entrance of Naeto C as Crystals left the stage. Naeto C came on stage to the eagerly anticipating audience, accompanied by a single backup singer. Quickly going ahead to perform his hit singles – Ako mi ti poju, kini big deal, I Gentle, Tony Montana, 5&6, and 10/10, with his signature smooth flow, the influential rapper also got down off stage to mingle with the fans as they screamed and shouted. He left the stage a little before 1:00am.
At precisely 1.00am, J Martins stepped on stage, applauded by the screaming fans. Accompanied by a full band, J Martins performed hit after hit, starting with Coolu Coolu Temper, Obi Mu Na, E No Easy, Oyoyo, Fine Fine Love, Good or Bad, and his Jupa remix. His performance was quite gripping as the audience almost didn’t want him to leave.
Mr. Raw came next, also accompanied by his full band and back up singers to perform his songs – Nigger Raw Nwa Nem, and Strong and Mighty. He brought along his protege, Hype MC to perform with him before wrapping up with ‘Spiritual konji’ and ‘hip hop gyration’
Flavour came on at about 3:30am to the wildly cheering fans with his DJ. He quickly bonded with the crowd, performing ‘Oyi’, ‘Odiri Easy’ and ‘Adanma’. The crowd sang along to the music as Flavour and his backup singer set the stage on fire. After performing a few more of his songs, he wound down his performance with his rendition of his part in Omawumi’s ‘bottom belle’ then took a little time to pay respect to the late MC Loph who passed away last year in a road accident.
Then the short black boy from Jos, MI, came up last to wrap up the show. He stepped on stage, accompanied by his DJ, DJ Lamboghini. MI pulled out many cuts from his previous albums such as ‘Beef’ , ‘My Belle, My Head’, ‘Teaser’, ‘Anoti’ and ‘Most Incredible’ to name a few. Not forgetting also the popular track ‘One Naira’ which he performed to a lady from the crowd, named Lucy. He also gave her his neck chain after the performance.
Assisting M.I was light skinned eastern rapper Phyno. He came on halfway through M.I’s set, and together they performed ‘Multiply Remix’. Before he left the stage, M.I thanked the crowd, saying ‘I am so overwhelmed, I appreciate all of you. I appreciate your love’.
It was a lovely show all in all,and fans were more than thrilled, with one of them saying ‘The show was very very good. Thanks to Star for bringing Flavour here o.’ Another was thrilled with the calibre of performers ‘J-Martins and Flavour o! This has been a wonderful event. Getting to see these artistes live is a wonderful experience.’
2 comments
m.i was wooooow…he made ma nyt
u dont belive i have a leave awka 2 abakiliki 2 watch mentor mi still i was nt dis appointed mi is d best