Barry BrecheisenThe party continues for Jermaine Dupri all right—in court.
The rapper-producer is on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed a few months ago in his hometown of Atlanta by a baby mama alleging he failed to keep up with child support payments for their baby girl.
So what gives?
E! News has learned that the 38-year-old Dupri had stopped paying plaintiff Sarai Jones not long after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Margaret Dorsey ordered the Grammy winner to pony up $2,500 a month along with an additional $7,500 to care for the 7-month-old child after a DNA test confirmed she was his daughter.
According to Jones' attorney, Randy Kessler, the legal action was something his client had hoped to avoid.
"She wants to resolve it without having to go to court and work together with him to raise their child," Kessler tells E! News. "She has nothing negative to say about him."
James Kane, Dupri's lawyer, could not be reached for comment.
But it appears these are tough times for the "Money Ain't a Thang" hitmaker who has worked with the likes of (his ex) Janet Jackson, Destiny's Child and Jay-Z.
Case in point, Dupri also came close to losing his northwest Atlanta mansion last week due to some heavy debts he's failed to pay down, including the original loan of $2.5 million.
Per records from the Department of Revenue obtained by local affiliate WSB-TV, the home had been in foreclosure and due to be auctioned off last week on the courthouse steps when a law firm handling the foreclosure scrapped the sale at the last minute. No reason was given for the cancellation but supposedly the hip-hopster owes the state of Georgia more than $493,000 in back taxes for 2007, resulting in a lien being filed against the property.
That's not exactly a drop in the bucket for Dupri, whose net worth as of 2006 was reported by Forbes to be approximately $12 million.