Flavor Flav Sues Ex-Business Partner For Screwing Him Out Of Chicken Restaurant

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Flavor Flav arrives at Excelsior! A Celebration Of The Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible And Uncanny Life Of Stan Lee at TCL Chinese Theatre on January 30, 2019 in Hollywood, California.
Flavor Flav and his wife are suing a former business partner for cutting them out of a joint restaurant.

Unfortunately, it feels like the only time we hear about Flavor Flav these days is when he's involved in some sort of drama. Although he's a pivotal member in Public Enemy, he hasn't been entirely involved in the music industry in quite some time. He's made a name for himself from television and other ventures. However, he's also dabbling in the restaurant business quite a bit over the years. Unfortunately, he's suing a former business partner for allegedly screwing him out of his business.

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Flavor Flav was previously partnered with James Hawkins to launch their restaurant, Flavor Flav’s Chicken & Vinny’s Pizza. Unfortunately, Flav claims that Hawkins cut him out of the business as a partner and continued to prove forward with the company, Bossip reports. 

“They opened a restaurant together, and Mr. Hawkins unilaterally breached their agreement,” Flav’s lawyer Marcus Risman said. “It caused damages to Mr. Drayton because he had fans show up there.”

According to Risman, Flavor Flav was putting in a ton of work to make sure that business is booming. Flav's lawyer said Public Enemy member and his wife Trujillo put  “blood, sweat and tears” into the business. Flav even tried handing out hundreds of copies of his memoir to customers to create more buzz surrounding the business.

Flavor Flav's Chicken & Vinny's Pizza included a cartoon of the rapper as its logo. However, Risman said that after Flav was cut out of the business, Hawkins went on to change the restaurant's name.

Flavor Flav wants the money damages for the profits that he claims he and his wife are entitled to, per their agreement with Hawkins. 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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