Yesterday, many in the hip-hop community were stunned to hear of the rape charges levied against Nelly, a rapper who reached worldwide acclaim for tracks like "Ride Wit Me" and "Hot In Herre." According to the initial report, a woman has accused the rapper of sexual assaulting her while they were both on his tour bus in Washington. The act itself supposedly occurred in the early morning hours on Saturday, with Nelly booked on second degree rape charges by law enforcement at around 7:00 AM. The rapper is touring with country act Florida Georgia Line at the moment and was about to take the stage in Ridgefield, WA on Saturday night. He also performed at a Friday night show in Auburn, WA.
After the fact, Nelly's lawyer went on the record with TMZ calling the charges false, stating that, "Nelly is the victim of a completely fabricated allegation. Our initial investigation, clearly establishes the allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness. I am confident, once the scurrilous accusation is thoroughly investigated, there will be no charges." He continued by saying that the emcee will not let this go unpunished, adding that, "Nelly is prepared to pursue all all legal avenues to redress any damage caused by this clearly false allegation." Now, as per a new report from TMZ, fellow rappper Akon is also siding with Nelly, saying that he doesn't believe his colleague would be able to do such a thing to an unsuspecting woman. "Not the Nelly I know," proclaimed the "Smack That" star. "He's an amazing person."
After adding that he's "almost 100% positive" that Nelly's innocent, Akon continued his interaction with the TMZ photog, speculating that the rape charges could in fact be an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Even worse? Akon claims that the accuser could have made the entire story up to try to score a big settlement from the veteran rapper. Only time will tell if Nelly is innocent or guilty as charged, but as of right now, it looks like he has at least one supporter in Akon. The below tweet, posted earlier this morning, solidifies that stance.
