Sneakbo, rapper Sneakbo, turning into a cat.
So a rumor came about and we thought,
“Right, it’s definitely real.”
That’s a madness!
It’s quarantine time.
Bare social distancing happening right now.
It’s pretty much a lockdown.
I haven’t been able to go nowhere.
Look at my beard, it’s all mad.
I can’t even get a trim or nothing.
As I’ve got nothing to do and I’m bored,
I’ve been spending a lot of time on YouTube
and just watching some old videos back.
And as I’m going down this rabbit hole, I saw an urban myth.
It was about Sneakbo turning into a cat.
He’s a rapper from Brixton, Nigerian descent,
chart success with tunes like
and
At first, I was like, “Ah, this is a joke.”
Then I’ve seen more videos,
then I’m like, “I’m investigating this.”
I need to know why people are talking about Sneakbo turning into a cat.
I’ve got Sneakbo on the line.
[Noisey Explains]
Could anyone in the world
have the ability to be able to morph into a cat?
Been ringing up some of my bredrens from south
and just trying to find out if they knew about this.
And bare of them are kind of on a vibe of,
“Chucks, you did not know about that?
That was common news, fam.”
Sneakbo turning into a cat.
Infamous.
That was actually a conversation.
Bro, I can’t explain to you how much man believe that.
I actually didn't even know about this at the time.
You didn’t know about it? I thought it was really popular.
The interesting thing about it was that when it happened,
obviously it was very funny and everything,
but it was the fact that no one necessarily questioned it.
My man apparently went into McDonald's,
and these officers run in there as well.
They’ve seen him, and he’s just disappeared and turned into a cat.
What, like a pussy cat or like a tiger cat?
They said he turned into a black cat.
And the legend behind black cats and voodoo is
anyone that does voodoo has a black cat
or the voodoo master has a black cat.
When I start hearing about juju, black magic, what is that?
Juju is the idea that there’s forces at work
behind things that are kind of mystical,
that you can’t see, that you can’t explain.
Probably someone made these things up.
Or he was getting chased,
and miraculously, a cat was just in McDonald’s, brud,
and he got away.
Where do you feel like it came from?
I don’t think it came from him,
just because I don’t think anybody would start a particular rumor that
they’d turned into a cat necessarily.
But it must have come from somewhere.
And I think the fact that he didn’t deny it either
also just made it kind of ball up into this big thing of,
“Oh my God, it’s true because he’s not denying it,
so obviously this guy turned into different animals.”
And it just becomes its own self-perpetuating thing.
I was not paying attention to people talking about
a man, a rapper turning into a cat.
This whole Sneakbo thing is spinning my head, bro.
Have you heard about this?
So a rumor came about that Sneakbo turned into a cat.
And obviously we laughed about it.
And then we thought, “Right, it’s definitely real.”
Why, why--
I don’t think that Sneakbo’s ever said “No” to it as well;
that’s what’s ****.
What? Has he never actually denied it?
I’ve never seen him deny it, fam. And I feel like...
you believe that ****, man.
Because we’re Nigerian,
and we grew up watching all these Nollywood films.
What’s the significance about a Nollywood film?
Black magic, a lot of suspenseful drama music.
Overacting, but the stories are still gripping.
But it’s almost like this has an element of the black magic vibe.
Why not?
You can’t put nothing past no one.
That’s a madness!
That’s reality, fam.
You know?
I ain’t going to lie, though...
he kind of looks like a cat.
That’s what I’m...bro. That’s what I’m saying, bro.
So I’m finding these things and I’m like, “Rah.”
We need to actually ask him properly.
Do you know what? I’m going to try and see if I can make that happen.
Because you know what?
There’s a part of me that is swaying to believe that this actually...
I’m going to try and see if I can get hold of Sneakbo
and try and get to the bottom of this.
[After weeks of sleepless nights,]
[I tracked down Sneakbo and arranged an interview.]
I’ve got Sneakbo on the line.
Yo, bro. You good, yeah?
Did you transform into a cat
and have you been abducted by aliens, brudda?
No, but that rumor's been going around for ten years.
Where did it come from?
There’s a local school around the area.
And then all the girls from that school used to tell me,
”Bruh, we heard you turned into a cat. Boom, boom, boom, boom.”
I think it was that school that started the rumor.
But basically what happened was they said that I was on Brixton Road
and then the Peckham Boys have rolled up.
And then when I saw them, I ran into McDonald’s.
And then when the boys chased me into McDonald’s
and they opened the toilet door,
they saw a cat on top of the same Air Forces and my chain
and clothes on the floor in the toilet.
At first, I was kind of on the vibe of this is foolishness.
But then I thought, “Hold on a minute,
there’s no smoke without fire.”
Up till this day, there’s not been one Peckham Boy that can say,
“Yes, I confirm that story. It was me that chased him.”
Even though I told people it didn’t happen,
people still tell me they don’t believe me
and it deffo happened.
Big and serious though...
because you know certain countries and that
believe in the black magic and them types--
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you believe that somewhere, whether it be Brixton or Jamaica,
Africa, America, wherever,
someone can actually morph into a cat?
You know what? I don’t want to believe it, but I believe it.
And obviously if it did happen,
I don’t even think someone who really can do that
would tell the truth and admit it.
Oh my God, it’s Sneakbo!
It’s him, it actually happened!
Did Sneakbo really turn into a cat?
I asked questions.
I spoke to people.
I dug deeper.
Could anyone in the world morph into a cat?
I spoke to Sneakbo.
Even though I told people it didn’t happen,
people still tell me they don’t believe me
and it deffo happened.
I definitely do not believe that it was Sneakbo.
That’s absolute foolishness.
What I think is
maybe there was a situation where he was running away from someone
and they couldn’t get him.
And then they went back, reported to the mandem,
and just added a bit of sauce to it.
The lie is more entertaining than the truth, and I'm here for it.
Yes, I hear the black magic side,
but I don’t feel Sneakbo turned into any type of cat.