Jackin4Beats Magazine

A one-night-only concert, a big-name American rapper – and a fresh rap sheet.

New York hip-hop artist and G-Unit member Lloyd Banks and three of his associates face charges of assault, robbery and forcible confinement after an alleged altercation with their Canadian booking agent in a Kitchener hotel room.

Mr. Banks, whose real name is Christopher Lloyd, played a concert at Brantford’s Club NV on Friday night. Police allege that in the early hours of Saturday morning – the emergency call came in at 5:23 a.m. – Mr. Banks and his three associates got in a fight with concert promoter Chris Hines in the hotel, assaulted him, robbed him and shut him in a hotel room for more than an hour.

Mr. Hines was treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. A colleague at Ultimate Entertainment said yesterday evening Mr. Hines was speaking with a lawyer.

Mr. Banks, 27, Tyrell Cooper, 24, Nicklas Sloane, 25, and Shaun McGee, 31 – all from New York – are each charged with aggravated assault, robbery and forcible confinement. They appeared in court yesterday and were remanded to police custody. They’re scheduled to appear in a Kitchener court today.

Police say the dispute is “believed to be a financial matter” – possibly a disagreement over the performance fee – but Erin Piovesan, a manager at Club NV, said Mr. Banks was paid the last instalment of his agreed-upon fee by 10 p.m. Friday.

Patrick Ducharme, the Canadian lawyer representing the accused, said the men plan to plead not guilty and he expects three of the four to be released today as soon as they post bail – $50,000 for Mr. Banks and $25,000 each for the others.

It will be more complicated to get Mr. Sloane out of jail and out of the country, however, because of a prior conviction related to “assaultive behaviour” and complications with immigration officials, Mr. Ducharme said.

Mr. Ducharme said he can’t comment on the charges or suggestions of any problems with Friday night’s concert.

“It would be foolhardy for me to comment on what’s alleged,” he said, adding that the accused hope to return to the United States until their trial date, which probably won’t be for another few weeks.

“We anticipate that we’ll be pleading not guilty and there’ll be a trial somewhere down the road. And that’s where we’ll really find out what happened.”

Ms. Piovesan said this was Club NV’s first American hip-hop concert. It got off to a rocky start when Mr. Banks, who was supposed to start his set at 1 a.m., showed up more than an hour late, and then left early when he didn’t like the reaction he was getting from the crowd.

“He tried to get everyone to come over right in front of the stage. People kind of weren’t feeling him yet because he was late. … Nobody was really doing what he was asking, so he just left.”

The audience was not impressed, she said.

“People were obviously upset,” she said. “[But] nothing happened at the club. There was no fighting whatsoever.”

She said the club hadn’t asked Mr. Banks to return any of his fee, although they would have liked to, and she has no idea what might have caused a fight at the hotel several hours later.