Maino was the talk of the internet after being caught on camera choking out YouTube comedian Buba100x. The 49-year-old has now revealed that their scuffle was not real, and rather an intentional attempt at going viral.
“So what you see is all a part of the prank,” the “All The Above” rapper told Angela Yee during a Monday (Feb. 27) episode of Way Up With Yee. “It was all part of the prank. It was fake. I wanted to make it look real. It was all fun and games. I’m great at [acting]. It was to make it look real. They want to go viral.”
The former co-host of The Breakfast Club brought up how the New York rapper doesn’t typically engage in behavior intended to cause a stir on social media, to which the Love & Hip-Hop actor replied “Sometimes we change though, baby!”
The situation occurred when Buba100x was interviewing Maino and asked to borrow his chain. “I can’t borrow your chain? Let me borrow it. Let me put on your chain so I can see how it feel. I wanna see how it feel to have on the chain.”
The “Hi Hater” rapper replied “See, now you just chatting. I gave you a time, now you just chatting.” Buba shifted his line of questioning to whether or not he could beat up the Lobby Boyz member, which led to him grabbing the YouTuber’s neck and choking him. “I just told you, it’s not just a stupid video. Don’t play with me.”
The video, shared via NoJumper’s Twitter, shows people in the background saying “Damn, he’s really choking him!” Given Buba100x’s involvement in a situation with Nas EBK earlier this month, where the Bronx drill rapper was charged with terroristic threats and assault following an altercation with a ShopRite employee in New Jersey, it was easy to believe that this run-in with Maino was real.