Spice Vs Chug It: Promoter Issues Statement Laying Out The “Facts”

The saga between Queen of Dancehall Spice and Chug It continues after the party promoters issued a lengthy statement today, which laid out their version of the events that led to the singer’s non-performance in Miami over the weekend.

The statement comes after Spice’s Instagram Live last evening, where she defended herself and her reputation following Chug It’s threat of legal action over the failed show and the alleged damages that ensued.

Read the full statement below.

FACTS RELATING TO SPICE’S SCHEDULED PERFORMANCE AT CHUG IT

The artiste was paid in full, including all related expenses for a performance that did not happen.

The event was granted a permit and had all legality to take place. The venue could not have been advertised if this was not the case.

Timeline of Events:

1. The Artiste was paid her full booking deposit as per the contract.

2. A stipulation of her contract indicates that the final hotel and flight itinerary should be confirmed two weeks before the departure date. Despite numerous requests made to Spice’s team for this information, the full information for the traveling parties was not forthcoming to the organizers until September 1st, with the first flight being requested to take place on September 3rd.

3. The flights for two members of the traveling party were booked and submitted to Spice’s representatives. When these members of the traveling party went to the airport they were advised of an issue with their flight, which was no fault of the organizers, but was 100% the fault of the Airline. The airline rectified the situation and the parties proceeded with traveling. What had happened was that the company’s credit card was flagged because of the high number of transactions that were taking place within a short period of time as a result of trying to process all the last minute information submitted by Spice’s Team.

4. It was communicated by representatives of Spice that Spice wished to book her own flight due to the previous occurrence of issue with the Airline of the first two travelling parties. Chug It issued a reimbursement contract to Spice on the same date of September 3`a, which stated that in light of Spice opting to book her own flight, Chug It would reimburse her through an assigned representative at the time when the per diem payment is being made. This agreement was signed by Spice herself and submitted to Chug It representatives on September 4th. The copy of her travel expense was also submitted to Chug It on September 4th.

5. Spice’s arrival at the airport in Miami occurred ahead of the time that she was scheduled to arrive. Representatives quickly jumped into action and traveled to the airport to try to get another vehicle to be available to her as the booked vehicle would not have become available earlier than at the time it was booked for. The
representatives were on site at the airport during the same period that the performer was there.

6. Spice took the decision to get her own transportation for which these expenses were submitted by her team to representatives of the Organizer. Regarding hotel accommodations, when the hotel was being booked we were told that there were no suites available due to the holiday rush. However when Spice arrived, Spice’s Manager was able to upgrade her to a suite, which the Organizers later paid for.

7. A vehicle (which met the specifications outlined in her contract) was made available to Spice and her Representatives. Spice’s Manager expressed that Spice would not like the color or vehicle type and requested that it be changed. This occurred on the night of September 4th. The representative stayed up for almost the entire night trying to source a vehicle to make the change possible to switch the vehicle to a black Cadillac. This change was made, and this is what subsequently caused the temporary delay in transportation provisions.

8. Following this delay, Spice’s Team became upset, and demanded that the full balance of the performance fee and all other expenses and reimbursements be paid as one sum, and the Chug It representative was given two hours for this sum to be paid, before gates were even open for the event.

9. At this time, Spice made an Instagram post with the caption “I have an announcement about @bigbadchugit at 2pm tune into my IG live”. This action tasted a whirlwind of doubt to both presold ticket holders and patrons who would be paying at the gate which significantly impacted months of promotion of the event.

10. This action also resulted in the delay of the start time of the event as the Organizer’s attention was diverted to meeting the sudden demands of the Artiste in an effort to prevent any other negative impacts. Our Representatives were advised in text that “time is ticking”. She stated that Spice had already packed and booked her flight to leave Miami. Her contract with the organizer states that the balance of her payment should be paid no later than 1 hour prior to the departure from the hotel to the venue for the performance. Despite this in writing, Chug It obliged and met the sudden demands of the artiste 6 hours before the scheduled performance, to ensure that Spice would be there.

11. Representatives arrived at Spice’s hotel at 1:15pm with $15,000 in cash and $5,900 to be transferred. Spice’s team delayed in coming to the lobby to meet with the representative to collect the sum. Spice’s representative at first refused the sum, and whilst our representative still waited at the hotel with the cash, another representative was sent with additional funds amounting to $6,900 in cash as well to present to Spice. Spice’s Team accepted the funds and was given her on stage and VIP tickets for her team and entourage. After this transaction was completed, the Organizer asked for Spice to make a post to her Instagram of the current event flier which had the tier 4 ticket price and also advertised the gate price and availability of tickets at the gate. She was asked to post this, because the artwork she chose to post for her IG live announcement displayed 100% sold out on it, which was an outdated flier referring to a previous tier of tickets and gave the impression to the public that this was a 100% sold out show which caused patrons to doubt that they could get tickets at the gate.

12. Chug It booked and paid for an RV which was provided for Spice, to be her dressing room at the venue. It was on location at the venue, but was never used by the artiste. Instead, she remained in her hotel room despite her having collected all the funds she demanded.

13. The Organizer who signed the contract with Spice communicated directly to the authorized representative of Spice that her performance should take place at 8:15pm. At 7:56pm upon realizing that Spice was still not at the venue, the Organizer who signed the contract generously communicated to her Manager that she can start her performance at 8:45pm, which gave her more time arrive.

14. The Organizer who signed the contract with Spice checked in with Spice’s team again, asking for an update on her location at 8:49 pm as he was advised that she was still not at the venue as yet.

15. The response to that message was from Spice, at 8:49pm indicating that she would give back the funds because her vibes to perform was not there. Some of these messages were unsent by Spice’s team minutes later.

16. Spice’s team sent the Organizer a screenshot of a text message from a third party who has no authorization over the contract that the Organizer signed with Spice, stating that the performance would be at 9pm. Despite all this, Spice was not present at the venue even for a 9pm performance, even though it was full to capacity and despite her contractual obligation to the Organizers of the event having received full payment for all expenses and full and complete payment for her performance.

17. The authorities later arrived at the venue, and when representatives explained to them that they were waiting on Spice to perform, they looked around, saw that she was not there, and then proceeded to order the music off.

18. Spice’s Team later sent a text message to say that she just arrived to the venue, well after the organizer’s scheduled time to perform. Additional expenses were paid for her and her party to be in Maimi from the day before the event, on the 4th just to make sure that she would be there at the event to perform. The Chug It team went above and beyond in efforts to please the artiste but Spice failed to present herself at the venue for the scheduled performance which raises the question, whether or not this was deliberate.

19. The resources used to book Spice could have paid for other International acts, however in its decision to support brand Jamaica, CHUG IT specifically chose to carry Spice onboard in making its entry into the States as a statement to commence the International brand agreement that CHUG IT recently signed.

20. Chug It and its Organizer has a great track record of complying and fulfilling contractual obligations with performers. Spice herself stated this multiple times. The Organizer made every effort to appease the performer, despite the lack of information on schedule, from her team.

21. The misinformation and subsequent effects of this misinformation that is now circulating regarding the brand due to her Instagram Lives are now causing significant damages, which could possibly impact the current brand contracts that exist. The brand has an extensive agreement and would not jeopardize the longevity of their contract for ANY reason.

22. There was no false advertising. There would be no false advertising when the Artiste herself made posts to her own page concerning the event. There is no false advertising when the artiste was paid in full for her performance.

Chug It is not the aggressor in this situation. She made attempts to threaten the event despite extreme and extensive efforts to meet her demands. For her to go to her Instagram live and page to inflict damage to a brand, that loves her and has done great business with her on multiple occasions is disappointing. In all the years of staging this event, these circumstances have never occurred. While we seek legal advice to remedy this matter, we are open and extend an invitation to Spice to engage in discussions for an amicable resolution. In the meanwhile, we continue to work on the next staging of CHUG IT in the USA.