Who dropped the ball in Monica's no-show in Durham? Questions linger

When Chris Weeks booked R&B singer Monica to perform at the 2024 Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival for $30,000 via booking agent Ardrae Jackson, he thought he had found a great deal.

2024-06-17

"Monica is going for $80K plus rider right now but I get the hook up," Weeks wrote in an email to City of Durham project manager Rukea Womack dated Jan. 24. The email was obtained by WRAL News via a public records request to the City of Durham.

Weeks was contracted for $45,000 in January to secure the headliner for this year's Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival. Officials said that in the following months, Weeks continued to assure the city's parks and recreation department that Monica had been booked. Weeks was paid in installments totaling $37,000. A final payment of $8,000 was set to come after the festival.

As the festival date neared, the city started promoting Monica as this year's event headliner. Days before the event, the artist said via social media that she wasn't booked to perform.

"Unfortunately, they are sharing that I was booked to perform today, which is absolutely untrue and impossible," Monica said in a video posted to Facebook on May 18. "I am about to perform here in Rochester and [Sunday] I'll be in Baltimore."

‘She has four people that book for her’

In documents obtained by WRAL News via public records request, Weeks provided a copy of a contract dated Jan. 23, which was made with "Monica Live 24" to perform at the Bimbé Festival on May 18 for $30,000, including the performance, artist travel, sound, lights, stage monitors and the artist's rider of requirements for the performance. The contract also required six hotel rooms at a four- or five-star hotel while in town.

A $15,000 deposit was required to be paid via wire transfer to the bank account for Ardrae Jackson in Stone Mountain, Georgia, according to the contract. Weeks also provided a copy of three wire transfers to Jackson totaling $10,870.

In addition to the wire transfers, public records show Weeks shared with city officials copies of $20,464 in Cash App transactions to different accounts for various expenses associated with the booking - the last being on May 14 with the memo being for "Monica Good Buyout" for $261.

Weeks, who describes himself as a retired artist and label manager, said “legacy artists” like Monica typically have a manager who operates the business side.

“Lots of times, you don’t have a booking agent,” Weeks said, noting that you can search online for an artist like Bobby Valentino online and find multiple booking agents.

“There’ll be 30 agents who pop up online - ‘Hey, we’ll get you Bobby Valentino,’ that’s because he’s not signed to an agency, so it provides a pipeline where any agent will take that and then try to connect to his management and say, ‘Hey, Bobby, we have a $5,000 date for you in Raleigh, what do you think?’” Weeks said.

Weeks said that is the situation with Monica.

“She has, according to Drae (Ardrae Jackson), she has four people that book for her,” Weeks told WRAL News. “She has one primary who does about 75% of her stuff … when he found out she had booked the Durham show, he didn’t know about it when he booked the Baltimore show apparently.”

Weeks said a full band was not an option “because of the price” so a DJ, background singer and dancers were options.

“Then, we started taking care of the travel, which initially wasn’t even included in the contract, and that’s where they kept hitting me up piecemeal, ‘Hey, we need more money, need more money, need more money,'” Weeks said. “Because it wasn’t a money thing for me, I wasn’t saying ‘no, we’re not paying, we’re sticking to the contract.’ I was just as long as I have my budget, I know what the budget is, as long as I didn’t have to come out of pocket terribly, we’re OK.”

When Monica’s concert in Baltimore was announced, Weeks said someone reached out to Womack saying, "Hey Monica is supposed to be in Baltimore, she’s not coming to Durham. It’s a scam.”

Weeks said that Jackson told him that Monica was supposed to fly to Durham to play the Bimbé festival and then go to Baltimore for a second show that evening.

“That’s where … the additional expenses were incurred for flights and that’s how it was presented to me,” Weeks said. “When they weren’t able to pull it off ... they started getting itchy, probably around Tuesday and that’s when one of the competing agents found out and when he found out about it that she hadn’t disclosed it with him, he started running interference and apparently Monica wouldn’t answer him as to whether she knew about it and he was crying foul.”

“We worked on it until Friday night,” Weeks said, noting that he was with city project manager Rukea Womack, who was supposed to bring the remaining $8,000 for the contract.

“We were sitting there and I’m on the phone with them saying, ‘What’s going on, what’s going on, figure it out,’” Weeks said. “They couldn’t tell me whether we were locked in or not.”

Weeks said he told Womack to hold the remaining payment for the next day “because things are getting super weird.”

“Within a half hour is when (Monica) drops her video (saying she isn’t performing in Durham),” Weeks said. “I start calling … Drae takes it kind of with a grain of salt and says ‘She’s posturing because for whatever reason she’s made the decision.’”

Weeks said Jackson told him that Monica probably made the decision because the $15,000 she stood to earn from the event wasn’t enough, saying that Jackson told him that ‘she doesn't know if she has to have all that activity for $15,000, all she needs to do is go on Instagram and say that she’s never heard of it and pretend and it’ll go away,”

Weeks signed a legal agreement last week to repay the city $37,000 for his failure to book the singer. He has paid back an initial $5,000 and will make 10 more payments of $3,200 from July 2024 until April 2025.

In emails obtained by WRAL News via a public records request, Weeks said he was waiting for Jackson to repay the $30,000 he had paid for the booking. As of Friday, Weeks said Jackson hadn’t repaid him.

Who is Ardrae Jackson?

Ardrae Jackson aka Drae Jackson is a Georgia-based artist booking agent at 6103MC Entertainment. On Jackson's Instagram account, he has artists such as Lil Wayne, Master P and 2 Chainz listed as available for booking as of July 2023.

In September 2023, Jackson shared an Instagram post implying that he is booking artists including J. Cole and Monica. WRAL News reached out to Rob Gibbs at United Talent, who represents Cole, and he said that Jackson’s name “does not ring a bell.”

WRAL News has contacted Monica’s publicist but has not heard back.

Weeks said he has known Jackson since 2009 when they both worked with a “couple different artists.”

“He’s an insider in the industry that has a Rolodex and has a skill set and does lots of shows, provides lots of talent to a lot of folks in that realm,” Weeks said.

‘He’s just taking the money and running’

Retired music industry professional and marketer Gene Dexter described a similar booking that fell through with Jackson.

Dexter, who is based in Seattle, told WRAL News that he had met Jackson through his connection with the band, Nappy Roots. Dexter had an agreement with Jackson to book R&B singer Jon B. for a performance, but said that booking didn’t materialize.

“He found out that we were interested in doing something for this venue that I was consulting, so Drae indicated that he was representing Jon. B.,” Dexter said.

Dexter said he handed the agreement off to a co-worker, who entered into a contract with Jackson. The co-worker sent Jackson a $10,000 deposit via Cash App.

“Really from the moment she did that, it became nothing but excuses and delays and this and that,” Dexter said. “I knew immediately that there were problems.”

Dexter said sending money via Cash App was not part of their procedure. “We like wires, we like working with actual banks.”

Dexter said Jackson was “very evasive the entire time about the materials needed to make the show happen, spec sheets about sound, the rider, all of these things that are …should be typical of an artist appearance.”

When Dexter reached out to Jon B.’s management, he became even more alarmed.

“They said that while they knew Drae, of Drae, no funds had been forwarded to them and they were not even aware of our interest in Jon. B.,” Dexter said. “The whole thing was just, in our opinion, just a scam.”

Dexter said that attorneys told them that suing would be a challenge, as serving the legal documents to Jackson could be difficult.

While he doesn’t have pending legal action against Jackson, Dexter said he told Drae he would go public to warn others.

“There’s a legitimate music business out there, but it doesn’t seem to be the side of business that Drae wants to be on. He’s just taking the money and running,” Dexter said.

Dexter said he has heard from others who have had similar experiences with Jackson.

In a lawsuit filed last year against Jackson, Ger-Bear LLC founder Ralph Ramirez accuses Jackson of failing to book artist Snoop Dogg. Court records obtained by WRAL News show that Jackson was ordered to pay back $37,000 in the case, which remains pending in Georgia. Records show multiple failed attempts to serve Jackson.

Despite the accusations, Weeks said he does not believe he was scammed.

“The thing about Drae Jackson is he’s always been authentic, but he’s also a nice guy, so I’ve watched him be on the losing end a few times because it’s tough,” Weeks said.

WRAL News has reached out to Jackson for comment but has not heard back.