St. Louis rapper Nelly has discussed making headlines last weekend after welcoming out kidnap victim Amanda Berry during a Cleveland concert following a decade in captivity.
According to the St. Lunatics leader, the entire incident was completely unplanned.
“I had a chance to meet and greet fans before the show and she was there with her family and friends,” Nelly explained. “After we took pictures we had a chance to sit down and talk, and I told her that she and her family were more than welcome to come up on the side of the stage and they did.” Concert footage shows the St. Louis rapper summoning Amanda to the stage and dedicating “Just a Dream” to her, as the crowd cheered on. “When we got to ‘Just a Dream,’ I wanted to make sure that we had a chance to acknowledge her,” he said. (MTV)
He also delved into how much of an inspiration Berry has been to him.
“When you meet someone who’s been through something as traumatic as that you really don’t know what to say or how to act. It’s one of those situations where you follow their lead with things — when she smiled, we smiled and when she didn’t smile, we calmed down a little bit. … I just wanted Cleveland to know that we were proud of her and that the strength and the pulse of the city is built around the people. … To see her survive that, I thought it was amazing and it inspired me to do almost anything.” (MTV)
Buzz behind the unexpected appearance surfaced online Saturday (July 27) afternoon.
The day after her captor was sentenced to life and 1,000 years in prison, Amanda Berry made her first appearance at a public event. Rapper Nelly introduced her onstage early Saturday evening during the day-long RoverFest concert at Voinovich Park. “He said, ‘Everyone, here’s Amanda Berry,’ and she came out with a friend, another young woman,” concertgoer Kayleigh Fladung said. “She didn’t say anything, but she was smiling and happy. “She waved to the crowd, everyone went crazy cheering, and she went backstage. Nelly did his set, 4 or 5 songs, and then he brought her out again and everyone cheered.” (Cleveland)
Over the weekend, Berry’s rescuer Charles Ramsey was brought out during a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony performance in Milwaukee.
The world needs to know that Charles Ramsey is still a hero for rescuing 3 girls from some psycho’s house in Cleveland back in May — at least according to the rappers of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, who dragged Ramsey on stage for a special tribute. BTH was performing at a concert in Milwaukee over the weekend when they brought Ramsey out, telling the crowd, “He’s a motherf***ing hero!!!” But Ramsey’s reaction is interesting … he doesn’t smile or anything … it almost looks like he’s tired of all the attention. Judge for yourself. (TMZ)