Memphis officials raised questions about a nonprofit’s use of city funds to book Saucy Santana for an HIV testing event, which the rapper no-showed over the Juneteenth weekend.
One Memphis One Vision founder Devante Hill claimed he recruited Saucy Santana to help draw a crowd for an event designed to help homeless people with HIV. Hill said he booked the rapper for $30,000, but Saucy Santana missed a flight and never appeared at the event.
“It wasn’t just, ‘Let’s have a party and celebrate Pride!’” Hill told WREG. “No, there was actually a mission and an objective behind actually booking this particular talent.”
Hill accused Saucy Santana of pocketing an advance and threatened to sue the rapper. But Hill may have bigger problems on his hands since the funds allegedly came from grant money, which wasn’t meant to be used to hire a celebrity.
“One Memphis One Vision was given a grant for their Juneteenth weekend through the Department of Housing and Community Development for HIV testing and to rehab two blighted homes to combat homelessness among youth 18-24 who test positive for HIV as part of a matching grant with Lowes,” Memphis communication officer Allison Fouche explained in a press statement. “This grant was not intended to hire entertainment for the event.”
Hill denied any wrongdoing.
“It was clear when we asked for the grant and applied for the grant that we wanted to create a very large testing event and that we needed to compel a specific demographic of people, and we had a solution as to how we were able to do that,” he told WREG.
Saucy Santana told TMZ he only received half of the deposit for the event. He alleged One Memphis One Vision was trying to paint him as a villain even though he still offered to come after missing his flight.
Memphis officials asked Hill to provide documentation on his use of the grant money.