A federal jury in New York determined last Thursday that R&B singer Ashanti breached a contract with Georgia-based producer Genard Parker and ordered the songstress to pay him $630,000, according to The Associated Press.
Parker filed his civil suit against Ashanti last year for breaching the contract she’d signed with him in 1996, when she was 16. The suit claims Ashanti and her mother approached him for help in securing a label deal for the then-unknown singer; Parker worked on some of Ashanti’s first professional recordings. Ashanti was in Canada working on her next when the verdict was read. Her attorney, Harry Stokes, told the AP his client was disheartened by the decision and intends to appeal. Parker was complimentary about Ashanti following his win and wished her well – although he noted the singer and her team “had plenty of negative things to say about me.” His lawyer, Jasmine Khalili, heralded the decision as a big win, even if the award amount fell considerably short of the $2.2 million at least one expert testified Parker might’ve been owed.