— no legal action likely
IT IS unlikely that local entertainment mogul Hits and Jams Entertainment would be taking legal action against Rick Ross and/or his management team, given the grounds on which the artist was unable to fulfill his contractual obligation. Kerwin Bollers, a director at Hits and Jams Entertainment, told the media yesterday that legal action could turn out to be “a very long haul”.
He explained that contractual agreements signed with musical artists contain several clauses, among which are provisions for cancellation or postponement of appearances on the grounds of ill health, or acts of God. According to Bollers, those provisions are extensively defined and clearly explained in contracts.
Last Sunday evening, the Rick Ross team informed Hits and Jams Entertainment that the megastar was unable to travel to Guyana as he had fallen ill, and his doctors had advised against travelling due to his sudden ill health.
Rick Ross is the United States-based rap/hip hop singer who had been scheduled to headline the Easter Fest Rozay Monday show billed for the Guyana National Stadium last evening. His act would have been followed by Jamaican dancehall artiste Mr. Vegas. The cancellation saw the Jamaican becoming the main act, while the Hits and Jams team hurriedly scrambled a few local acts together to fill in the space.
Bollers explained that the Rick Ross team had been in constant contact with Hits and Jams following the unforeseen circumstance, and the two sides are working to have the artiste present in Guyana at a later date. This will, however, depend largely on the schedule of both teams. Moreover, Rick Ross’s coming to Guyana will also depend on the type of concert Hits and Jams plans to hold, and the target audience it plans to reach.
Hits and Jams Entertainment considers it inhumane to hold the artiste accountable for an act over which he or his team had no control. They also reason that, given his illness, he made the correct decision not to appear, rather than risk collapsing on stage.
Kerwin Bollers deemed the decision to bring Vegas to Guyana a brilliant idea. He said that, like many Guyanese, he was disappointed that Rick Ross was a no-show.
As a result of Ross’s non-appearance for the concert, by mid-morning on Monday, Hits and Jams announced that persons wishing refunds should visit the show’s ticket office at Ashmins on High Street. The team also announced that entry to the concert was free for anyone who turned up before 22:00 hrs last evening.
A patron who decided to cancel her ticket for the show said she was totally disappointed and upset that the main act was going to be absent. She said it seemed strange that despite much hyped advertising and promotion of the show and the scheduled appearance of the artiste, the artiste himself, whom she has on twitter, did not even make a single post about his scheduled appearance at a concert in Guyana.
This is not the first time that Hits and Jams has been placed in an embarrassing situation when bringing artistes to these shores. In 2009, they were forced to sue international R&B artiste T-Pain after he cancelled his appearance for a February 23 show. The artiste claimed that he had received death and kidnapping treats.
Just last August, the local entertainment group encountered another no-show mere hours before a show, this time by Caribbean dancehall artiste Vybez Kartel. Again, death threats were given as the reason, since the artiste claimed that someone in Guyana wanted to shoot him.