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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Hip-Hop Artist Jumps into Court

BRANSON, Mo. (CN) - Nelly, a St. Louis rapper, has taken a promoter to court, demanding $37,500 for a show he gave at the Mansion Theater last summer.

Flush Touring Co. claims Branson-area promoter Paul Dunn owes Nelly the money for his Aug. 21, 2010 show.

The original agreement called for Nelly to be paid $75,000, but Dunn says the figure was orally amended to $40,500 after the concert was moved to the Mansion Theater.

The concert was originally scheduled for the parking lot of the Grand Palace Theater. It had to be moved after city officials refused to issue permits, citing security, noise and parking.

Both sides accuse the other of trying to damage their reputations, in the complaint in Stone County Court.

Dunn told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the lawsuit is an attempt to detract from his accusation that Nelly's manager, Abby Cole, threatened him after the concert. Dunn said Cole demanded $35,000 before the concert was over, and that he and two others followed him to a hotel and restaurant, where they blocked his car with their vehicle.

"That's when Mr. Cole pulled this gangster scene right out of a Hollywood movie," Dunn told the Post-Dispatch. "He kept telling me how I was going to get my (expletive) kicked. I wrote him a check just to get those guys out of there."

Dunn said he stopped payment on the check the next day and filed a police report about the alleged assault on Aug. 23.

Nelly's manager Mike Chaffin said he didn't know anything about the alleged confrontation between Cole and Dunn.

"What I know is his check bounced like a basketball," Chaffin told the Post-Dispatch.

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