by Ifreke Inyang

PlaybackGenius is one of those tweeters who maintains an air of mystery around them, but his witty, irreverent and hilarious tweets have made him one of the more popular persons on twitter. In real life, PlaybackGenius is an aspiring Engineer who also has love for the entertainment industry.

He’s our last twitter personality for the month of May and he answers our usual questions.

How did you get on twitter?
I saw an article online about it and I thought I should just give it a try. I thought it was a dumb site because facebook had more features. At first I was sending my tweets via facebook and I didn’t know anyone on it and I was just following celebrities. However, when I saw my friends @yoitsbeazy and @lumidizzle use twitter often with hundreds of followers, I knew I was going to have fun with it.

Who would you say is your favourite tweep?
@kidkonnect, primarily because we both make beats and that’s his main hustle. I have to respect him for that. I got other great guys like @Sir_Scribbles, @hexydre, @aquamarine05, @thepervnerd, etc. I just started following @ayofierce @theycallmekoro and @otase and so far they seem like fun peeps.

Is there any particular tweet you’ll never forget? Tell us about it.
oh yeah it was by @ikilledmario.. It took me like 20mins to recover from that tweet. It said: Even on the queue to hell fire, some Nigerians will still try to chance people.

Have you had any embarrassing/memorable experience on twitter? If yes, what happened?

Anything to do with Arsenal’s loss is always an embarrassing moment on Twitter being an Arsenal fan. But I always enjoy when Nigerian make Trending Topics trend worldwide.  It’s always fun to see that.

What are the downsides of being on twitter?
Downsides? I guess sometimes people take the ‘celeb’ status too far. Make it seem like it’s what they are in ‘real life’. If you have a lot of followers, it’s because people like your tweets but it shouldn’t make you feel like you’re ruling the world. Just be you. Also people can send some of the nastiest subs but I guess that adds to the entertainment.

What are the upsides?

The speed at which information is sent. I love that. I love technology. I’ve also followed some fantastic peeps. I’ve had the opportunity to network with new people which is definitely an asset for the future.

Many tweeps say you have a controversial persona on twitter. Is this true?

It’s true and sometimes I try to control myself from sending very sensitive tweets because I have a way with words. But many times I like to ask questions people are afraid to ask whether it’s religion or politics or sex. I think approaching the controversial sides of life is good sometimes but there should definitely be a limit so you don’t aggravate or disrespect people.

Describe your twitter persona in three words.
Keep it 100

Do you follow back readily? Why?

I try to be nice you know. Sometimes I follow because I think she’s cute or the person is into music, soccer, basketball, witty, fun etc. But even though I follow a lot of people I have a witty list where I got like 200 people that I really pay attention to their tweets.

What would possibly make you close your twitter account?
If Twitter decides to shut down, lol!

TWITTER STATS (As at 3am, 29^th May, 2011)

Handle: @PlaybackGenius

Followers: 3,296

Following: 1,618

Tweets: 57,644

Favourite tweets: 268