On this oil-rich island, affluent Saudi tourists could take a break from their repressive laws and legally drink alcohol, watch movies in theaters, shop and eat in coed establishments and, occasionally, pick from an armada of Thai and Chinese prostitutes. Into this “baby Dubai, with its prenatal skyscrapers and tax shelters, with its rinky-dink wildlife park and the Dolphin Park water show,” as GQ called it, flew DJ Whoo Kid of Queens, New York. The sheiks had hired the affable member of hip-hop star 50 Cent’s G-Unit posse to provide music for a Formula 1 party in October 2005. His flight from the US to Bahrain was going fine until he lost his passport during a stop in the Dubai airport. Whoo Kid was in trouble. Dubai officials were threatening to send him back to the US, even though his Formula 1 appearance was scheduled for later that day. In a panic, he texted the man who’d hired him, Sheik Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, crown prince of Bahrain and second son of the king. Next thing he knew, a member of the sheik’s family was outside, on the runway, searching underneath the planes for his lost passport.
