Yesterday, rapper Pitbull won the keys to the City of Miami for his work "traveling the country and the world sharing a positive message of Miami," according to one city commissioner.
But
via Wikimedia Commons
for all of Mr. 305's postive-image-spreadin' "world-traveling," it's a
trip he's accused of not making that's landed him in hot water.
An
Australian promoter slapped Pitbull -- real name: Armando Christian
Perez -- with a lawsuit this month, claiming that he skipped out on
three shows scheduled Down Under in late 2008 and pocketed the advance.
Jaime Fernandez, a Sydney-based promoter who goes by the name DJ Suave,
says he booked Pitbull for three Aussie shows last December, in Perth
on Dec. 5, Melbourne on the 6th and Sydney on the 7th. Pitbull never
showed, he says.
"We did everything we could to make him happy,
sometimes even going that extra mile in order to meet his demands,"
Fernandez tells New Times in an email interview. "But yet he
still refused to get on the plane. Not only that, he also failed to
notify that he wasn't coming and also kept half the money for doing
nothing at all."
Fernandez declines to say how much money he's demanding from Pitbull. His lawyer, John McIntosh, tells New Times
that the suit was filed in Australian courts on June 2 and that Pitbull
was served with the papers in Coral Gables two weeks ago.
Pitbull has until Sept. 2 to respond to the claims in Australian court, McIntosh says.
Fernandez says he hates suing Pitbull.
"I'm
a huge Pitbull fan. I've always been the first person in Perth to play
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his music, but justice must be done," he says. "He can say whatever he
wants about why he didn't get on that plane, but we would rather leave
it up to the courts."
New Times hasn't been successful in getting a comment from Pitbull. Unlike certain other South Florida rappers -- ahem, Flo Rida, ahem -- Pitbull hasn't thrown his cell phone number out on the Interwebs just yet.
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