On November 30, a Facebook page, Abashwe made a post quoting world-famous rapper, Marshall Mathers popularly known by his stage name Eminem, airing his irritation about and dislike for Nigeria.
The post had two pictures of Eminem with the caption: “”I’ve never been to Nig€ria 🇳🇬, that country irritat€s me”__ Eminem.”
“I remember I had to do a research about African countries I can take my tours to and for some reason I just didn’t like Nig€ria, it looked so dirty and their poverty couldn’t allow them to afford my tickets, plus terrorism is at its peak out there. Again, their people are so loud when they talk which irritat€s me the most. I decided to go to South Africa and I loved it so much that I had to go back again and again and again. I’ll be going back to South Africa probably next year”___ Eminem.”
Since being published, the post has generated heated debates between Nigerians, South Africans and other African countries, with about 6,000 comments, over 8,900 reactions and 184 shares. It is important to verify this claim as it quotes a popular figure on the hospitality of two African countries.
VERIFICATION
N-VA did several keyword searches of credible platforms and no genuine platform including in the United States where the artist is based, music media or any other platform published the claim.
The fact-checker also went through Eminem’s social media platforms to see if any posts or content related to the claim were posted by the rapper but found nothing relating to the Abashe post. Recall that in 2014, Eminem performed two concerts in South Africa as part of his Rapture 2014 tour.
However, N-VA discovered that this was not the first time a fake news story was cooked up in South Africa about Eminem. In early 2024, a doctored video went viral within South Africa with Eminem purportedly saying the African National Congress, ANC, had “failed black folks in that country. No jobs, no roads, no water”. He goes on to rhyme: “Crime is high and you wonder why.” That claim was verified by Africa Check which found the video to be a deepfake generated video of Eminem.
Meanwhile, a careful analysis of the page where the post was made shows that the page continuously shares negative opinions about Nigeria and Nigerians, and has been intentional in not sharing anything positive about the country. Also, the about page revealed it is a blogging page based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Southern Africa nation and its West African counterpart, Nigeria have previously been involved in internet trolling debacles with the recent one being the saga of Chidinma Adetshina.
CONCLUSION
The claim that Eminem said Nigeria irritates him and would rather pick South Africa over Nigeria is FALSE as there was no credible media report of the rapper making such a statement.
