Singer and filmmaker JJC Skillz says he has drawn a hard line against live shows after what he described as a humiliating wait at an MTV event in Ikeja, Lagos. He said he dropped the microphone, left the stage, and told his team it would be the last time.
The 49-year-old artiste, born Abdulrasheed Bello, said MTV invited him to perform and even put him on the promotional poster. He left home, arrived backstage, and then watched other acts go on while he stood waiting. Organisers, he said, kept telling him they wanted to hold him till late because he was an “OG.”
“MTV called me to come and perform at a show in Ikeja. You know I came, they did a poster and everything. I was in my house, they called me, they said I should come. I came backstage, was waiting for about 30 minutes, people were performing, even people that I met there,” he said.
An hour later, he asked to go on. The answer stayed the same. Then Wande Coal arrived.
“I remember that Wande Coal had just come and they were like ‘Oh! Wande Coal just came, let him perform’. I greeted him, we spoke and then he went on stage and he performed.”
Another artiste followed. Two hours in, JJC said he was angry and ready to leave.
He and his manager finally reached the stage. He took the microphone and waited for his track. That was when the promoter walked up and asked him to stand down so a newly arrived artiste could do one song first. JJC refused. The argument spilled onto the stage.
“I told him that he should just let me perform and go and he was like no, that I should just give him one more. I was like no, we started having a back and forth and I was like I am not going to give away the microphone and I was going to perform now.”
He said the promoter grabbed another microphone, handed it to the other act, pushed his manager aside, and played that artiste’s song instead.
JJC dropped the mic and walked off. His managers tried to calm him and promised it would not happen again. He was not interested.
“I was like no, I am never performing again. At this age, I do not need that disrespect, it was not the first time but today definitely would be the last time and I drew that line.”
The account matches a longer shift he has already described in public. After hits such as We Are Africans and work with JJC and the 419 Squad, he moved deeper into filmmaking in the 2010s, saying he felt too old for the young music scene and wanted to tell stories. In 2023, he also said he no longer had the urge to return to the stage as an artiste. The Ikeja incident, in his telling, closed the door for good.