When things got heated on a swank yacht party in Dubai, it was rapper Nelly who came to the rescue.
According to the New York Post , the rapper was at an exclusive party attended by a number of A-listers including rappers Future and Akon ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when a massive fight broke out. During the brawl, one person was hit by a flying bottle and injured, so Nelly ran to help the injured partygoer.
“When Nelly heard the commotion, he went running in to help the person who was hit in the nose,” a source told the celebrity gossip outlet.
Nelly was part of a week filled with festivities around the Grand Prix, which also included concerts from French Montana, Post Malone, and Guns ‘n Roses, Timeout Dubai reported.
Police reportedly investigated the yacht brawl, but Nelly ended up in the clear.
Others haven’t been so lucky in Dubai, including Future’s DJ, Esco, who was arrested on a marijuana possession charge in 2015 and ended up spending 56 days behind bars.
“When they arrest you, they don’t have to say, ‘You have a right to this’… There’s no judge, no jury. They assign you to a prosecutor, and the prosecutor can just do what he wants with you. They don’t have to tell you anything. They don’t even have to explain what the charge is.” At the airport after he was freed, he said, he bought headphones, ice cream and cookies, “and I was like, ‘I can’t believe this. Like, what just happened?’ ”
Nelly is no stranger to spending time behind bars. Last year, he was taken into custody on a charge that he raped a woman on his tour bus. As the National reported, Nelly was booked into jail and then released pending an investigation of the woman’s claims.
Once freed, Nelly took to Twitter to apologize to fans and push back against the allegations.
“I do want to apologize to my loved ones for the embarrassment and for putting myself in a situation where I could be victimized by this false and defaming allegation,” he wrote.
Nelly to the rescue in bottle-smashing brawl on Dubai yacht https://t.co/aibED8bfgo pic.twitter.com/ZfH8hVGFDc
— Page Six (@PageSix) December 1, 2018
Prosecutors ultimately declined to file charges, and the accuser later filed a civil lawsuit that was also dropped. As the rapper’s lawyer told People magazine, the case was put to rest without any money changing hands. The accuser’s lawyer disputed this, however, suggesting that there may have been a payoff from Nelly to the woman.