Foxy Brown's probation seems to be going well; her anger-management sessions, though, not so much.

The hip-hopster appeared in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday for a progress hearing on her probation for roughing up a couple of nail salon workers over a billing dispute. Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson gave the rapper a thumbs-up for her apparent good behavior—despite Brown getting bounced from an anger-management program for allegedly threatening an employee over, yes, a billing dispute.

During the status hearing, Brown's lawyer, state senator John Sampson, rejected a call by probation attorney Matilda Leo that the Chyna Doll diva be sent to the slammer for a probation violation. Leo claimed Brown got into a heated exchange with a staffer at Brooklyn's Shore Parkway clinic.

Sampson vehemently refuted the allegation, saying the rap star was only protecting herself from a shakedown attempt by an employee identified only as "Ken," who demanded Brown fork over $180 in cash for the counseling sessions.

"Probation had told her the sessions cost $30," Sampson told Criminal Court Judge Melissa Jackson, per the New York Daily News. "And my client is not supposed to pay in cash."

Jackson agreed, and likened Ken's demands to a "stickup."

Sampson added that Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, called him as the argument was going down.

"I could hear 'Ken' myself, berating my client," the attorney recounted. "I could hear my client telling him, 'You know what, I don't want to get into any physical altercation with you. You're trying to push me.' "

Following the altercation, Brown was given the boot. But Sampson insisted the problem wasn't necessarily Brown's anger-management issues but the people running the program, and he said the 28-year-old emcee will resume her treatment with a private counselor instead.

Jackson approved of the arrangement and scheduled another progress report for Mar. 15, which Brown will be required to attend.

She was sentenced in October to three years of probation, anger-management classes and random drug tests after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of assault stemming from her 2004 attack on two manicurists at Bloomies Nails in Chelsea.

In a hearing in December, Jackson rejected a petition by a lawyer for the city's Department of Probation, who claimed Brown was "flouting the court-ordered conditions of her probation" and demanded the entertainer be locked up. Instead, the judge issued Brown a warning.

After Wednesday's hearing, Brown briefly addressed reporters, saying the sentence has been a positive experience because "probation forces you into structure."

"It is making me grow up," she said. "I have matured a lot since I started the anger management."

As she got into a waiting SUV, the Brooklyn native also gave some rare props to Jackson.

"This is only the first time in two years that I'm pleased with Judge Jackson," said Brown, who previously charged the judge for being difficult simply because she's not a fan of hip-hop. "She got an excellent report from probation."

On her downtime from the anger-management sessions, the rapper has been prepping her next solo disc, Black Roses, expected to drop in February.