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Jay-Z Calls On Friends
Right now, it looks like P. Diddy and Mary J. Blige will join Jay-Z for the five shows slated to take place November 5-12. It’s not clear if they’ll participate in the rest of the tour, which is supposed to run through November 28.
Calls to concert venues hosting the tour indicate that Jay-Z plans to make good on all the dates but his line-up of “friends” is in flux.
While who’s on what date is being decided, ticketholders who are no longer interested in the show can get a refund by returning tickets to the point of purchase.
R. Kelly, meanwhile, has filed suit for for $75 million, alleging Jay-Z’s “spite and jealousy” prompted him to use violence to force Kelly off their national tour.
The tour was supposed to be “the perfect marriage of hip-hop and R&B,” said Kelly’s lawyer, Edward Hayes. “Instead, it’s going to be a terrible divorce.”
The breach of contract suit suggests Jay-Z was perturbed because Kelly was the higher-paid performer. The animosity led to deliberate lighting flubs and other technical problems, violence against Kelly, and threats to force the promoter to drop him, court papers say. The promoter is also named as a defendant.
Kelly accused one of Jay-Z’s associates of blasting him with pepper spray early Saturday at Madison Square Garden. He was treated at a hospital and released.
A short time later, the tour’s promoter, Atlanta Worldwide Touring, fired Kelly. He and Jay-Z were in the middle of a 40-city tour that had been plagued by canceled shows and reports the two refused to speak to each other.