How does a flagship university become the subject of a famous rapper’s Twitter rant? Book him for a speaking engagement, withhold $2,500 from his fee for not fulfilling his end of the deal … then wait.
That’s how the epic feud between Talib Kweli and the University of Utah began, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. After the institution said it was “hugely dissatisfied” and would not pay Mr. Kweli for his Martin Luther King Jr. Day appearance, the rapper took to Twitter, ranting against the university in a series of now-deleted tweets.
“The tweets stop when I get my MONEY. How dare they. Don’t EVER disrespect my time and efforts,” one of the tweets read, according to the Tribune.
The university wouldn’t provide the newspaper with a copy of the contract, but emails showed the university believed Mr. Kweli had shortchanged it on several counts. Among them, the university claimed, Mr. Kweli attended a reception in his honor for only 20 minutes instead of an hour and a half, declined to give a spoken-word performance, and stayed for only five minutes at a lunch following his speech.
Mr. Kweli countered that he had done more than enough to deserve the money, and that the university had done nothing to suggest he was violating their contract during his visit.
Once the university agreed to pay Mr. Kweli, he tweeted, “deleting the tweets it took to get paid.” The university’s account replied, “Your visit was a highlight of MLK week. We don’t want it marred by differences on appearance details. Thx for celebrating w/us!,” according to the Tribune.
A university spokeswoman, Maria O’Mara, told the newspaper that officials ultimately decided to pay Mr. Kweli “because really, at the end of the day, our differences over the contract were so small, they didn’t even deserve 140 characters.”
