Durham still paying price, seeking answers two years after Bimbe booking breakdown

Two years after the headliner for a Durham festival no-showed, WRAL Investigates has learned the city is still recouping the money it paid for the appearance.

The popular Bimbe Cultural Arts Festival celebrates African and African American history and culture. 

Saturday, May 16, is the 56th anniversary of Bimbe. Thousands attend each year. 

In 2024, an Instagram post from the planned headlining artist put a damper on the excitement around the festival, and the effects are still being felt two years later. 

The night before the 2024 festival, planned headliner Monica posted on Instagram, “I was never contacted. I was never contracted. I never even heard of the festival until today.”

While the rest of the festival that year went as planned, the City of Durham opened an investigation into what happened.

Chris Weeks was contracted with the city to book the headlining artist; in an interview with WRAL, he explained he had worked with Drae Jackson, a booking agent he’d successfully worked with previously.

In an email to the city after the festival issues, Weeks wrote: “Down to the wire, they attempted to figure out how to make the schedule work including asking me to hire a local DJ to back her versus her bringing one (despite me having already spent thousands on 5 first-class flights that were not agreed to in the contract.) Monica and her team viewed this as a 'favor' event where she was performing for a fraction of her normal ask and she definitely treated it as such.”

Weeks signed an agreement to pay the city back $37,000.

However, he says Drae Jackson has not paid him back at all, and he’s been paying the money out of his own pocket. Weeks says he’s paid back $25,000 so far, and he continues to work with the city.

According to the Durham City Attorney, Weeks has paid $24,200 so far and still owes the city $12,800.

This year, the city has booked Doug E. Fresh as the headliner for Bimbe.

The City’s Parks & Rec Facebook page has a video posted with Doug E. Fresh, “I’ve done it a long time ago and this is me coming back to finish what I started.”  

The video is an example of changes made after the Monica no-show. Artists must now provide a video message confirming their contract, the city attorney said. 

The contract for Fresh also includes a clause the protects the city from losing money should an artist fail to show.

After the Bimbe debacle, numerous other event planners and bookers reached out to WRAL about Drae, or ArDrae, Jackson.

One case happened in Seattle, when retired music industry professional and marketer Gene Dexter said he had an agreement with Jackson to book R&B singer Jon B.

Dexter said he handed the agreement off to a co-worker, who entered into a contract with Jackson. The co-worker sent Jackson a $10,000 deposit via Cash App.

“Really from the moment she did that, it became nothing but excuses and delays and this and that,” Dexter said. “I knew immediately that there were problems. The whole thing was just, in our opinion, just a scam.”

Others have also had issues.

In a lawsuit filed in 2023 against Jackson, Ger-Bear LLC founder Ralph Ramirez accuses Jackson of failing to book artist Snoop Dogg. Court records obtained by WRAL News show that Jackson was ordered to pay back $37,000 in the case, which remains pending in Georgia. Records show multiple failed attempts to serve Jackson.

Another woman, Patricia Pickett, also described a negative experience with Jackson.

Pickett founded Off the Chain Management, and her company was contracted to provide an artist to the City of Montgomery. She said she worked with Jackson to book a performer.

“This was for an artist agent booking that turned into a complete no-show. The contract clearly promised a refund within 24 to 48 hours. It’s been almost a year, and all my client and I have received are excuses,” Pickett posted on her Instagram.

WRAL has reached out to Jackson about the allegations against him, both in 2024 after the Bimbe debacle, and in 2026 at the time of writing. We have not heard back.