Nigerian Comedian, Basketmouth has narrated how he first landed up as a humor merchant some twenty-six years ago.
Basketmouth, 44, also known as Bright Okpocha said prior to his transition, he was a rapper in an Afro-Hiphop group who went by ‘The Lyricist’.
The award-winning comedian and actor made this known when he made an appearance on the 3FM Drive with Caleb Giovani and AJ Sarpong on Monday, March 27.
“What happened was I was into music before then, I was a rapper as far back as 1995 and went by the name Lyricist but the kind of music we were making wasn’t proper because I was mixing Hip-hop and Afrobeats which is what people are doing right now but then it sounded a bit off,” he said
According to him, the name Basketmouth was adapted after a performance that turned into a trolling contest.
“I was on stage performing when people started heckling and I got upset then I started trolling them back for almost thirty minutes. After the show one guy walked up to me and said dude you have a basket mouth…I said that’s a good name,” he revealed.
The standup comedian who is in Ghana ahead of his ‘Baskemouth Unprovoked’ comedy show on April 8 revealed that the coincidental decision has led to a successful career spanning 26 years.
“After the set, that was when Enoch Fugarah walked up to me and was like dude you need to do this comedy thing more. The rap thing is good but you wanna try comedy and that’s when I started writing material because before I used to just freestyle,” he said.
Basketmouth who has gone back to his first love, music in the past few years explained that it was not a mid-life crisis but his way of sharing his other talents with the world. He currently has two albums, Yabasi and Horoscopes to his credit.
