It looks like 6ix9ine finally caught a lucky break, albeit a temporary one, with the dismissal of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Last October, just weeks before he and five affiliates were arrested on racketeering charges, 6ix9ine made news for canceling a concert at the Washington, D.C. venue Echostage minutes before the show was scheduled to begin—and for appearing as a surprise guest at Power 105's Powerhouse Concert at the Prudential Center in New Jersey that same night.
As a result of the no-show, 6ix9ine was sued last December by promoters Benhur Tesfalidet and Anton Alexander for $5.3 million. Also named in the suit were the rapper's soon-to-be codefendant Kifano "Shotti" Jordan; 6ix9ine's former manager Christian Ehigiator; husband-and-wife team Steve and Tashea Ferguson of MTA Booking, Inc. (a company 6ix9ine would accuse of stealing from him days before his arrest, claims they deny); another booking agent, Will Cornish; and iHeartMedia, the company behind the Powerhouse concert.
On Friday, the lawsuit, which was filed in D.C. District Court, was dismissed following a request by Tesfalidet and Alexander's lawyer. Alexander told Complex that they plan to continue their legal battle, however.
"Due to the developing news with 69’s other major case[, n]ewly discovered facts affect some of our claims so we will be refiling to specifically address the additional facts and related claims," he wrote in an email.
Steve and Tashea Ferguson's attorney, Bruce DelValle, told Complex that he was happy about the outcome, and ready if the refiled charges include the MTA Booking heads.
"[Steve and Tashea] actually stepped in to try to help the situation and try to get Tekashi to show up, which at that point in time in his career was becoming a more problematic issue than previously," he said. "It's in the category of 'No good deed goes unpunished.' They did nothing wrong. They were never paid any money. They were actually out money. They just got caught in the net with this promoter. We felt it was a frivolous lawsuit against our client. Clearly, there was some issue of whether Tekashi showed up like he was supposed to, but that had nothing to do with my clients. My clients were not the agents for Tekashi 6ix9ine. They weren't even the booking agents. They were just trying to help by getting the kid to show up. And what they got for that was a loss of some money and a federal lawsuit. So we're delighted that they decided to see the brighter light and dismiss the case. If they're foolish enough to refile, we'll go after them for fees and costs."
The now-dismissed complaint details a year-long struggle to get 6ix9ine to play a show in D.C. On Oct. 25, 2017, shortly after the video for 6ix9ine's breakout hit "Gummo" was released, Tesfalidet says he contacted the rapper's team to get him to play a show at the Bliss Nightclub for $7,000. After multiple cancelations and attempts to reschedule, the fee for the Oct. 28, 2018 performance at Echostage was upped to $60,000.
Following the controversy around the show's cancelation, 6ix9ine addressed the issue on Instagram Live. He said at the time that "the people did not pay me. They was working with some corrupt scamming fucking—Whoever saying they was in charge of me wasn't in charge. They paid some people that, the money never came to me. So I'm not going to a show I wasn't paid for." Tesfalidet claims in court documents, backed up by text messages, that he coordinated with Shotti to deliver $44,970 of the fee in cash, with the remainder having previously been paid during the multiple rounds of cancelations and reschedulings.
One fun detail revealed in the documents: the suit's exhibit A includes a rider for an early attempt to book the show at Echostage, for February 2018. 6ix9ine's provisions backstage were to be one bottle of Balvenie, one bottle of Macallan, two bottles of Hennessey, a 24-pack of Essentia water, and a fruit tray.
