Rapper Flo Rida agrees to support package for his disabled son that could total nearly $500,000 a year, then left court holding a folder over his face
An agreement on nearly $500K a year in annual support follows contentious negotiations, during which Flo Rida's lawyer shouted, "I'm ready for war!"
Rapper Flo Rida agrees to support package for his disabled son that could total nearly $500,000 a year, then left court holding a folder over his face
May 25, 2023, 3:57 PM EDT
Flo Rida.
- Flo Rida was taken to Family Court by Alexis Adams, his ex-girlfriend and the mother to his son.
- The rapper agreed to support Zohar, which could cost him nearly $500,000 a year in child support.
- The "Good Feelings" rapper covered his head with a hat, mask, and folder as he ran to a waiting van.
A dressed-down, incognito Flo Rida agreed to a massive child-support package for his son during a Family Court hearing in New York City on Thursday — a combination of monthly and annual payments that could set him back half a million dollars a year.
Under the agreement with his ex-girlfriend Alexis Adams, the "Good Feeling" rapper was told to pay $14,000 a month in support and $2,212 a month in health insurance for Zohar Dillard, his six-year-old disabled son who was recently seriously injured in a five-story fall.
He was also ordered to set up a $300,000 escrow account for Zohar's needs. The account must be replenished annually, each September. Topping the package is a onetime $188,000 payment that the rapper was told to wire to Adams immediately to compensate her for outstanding expenses, including Zohar's school costs.
Flo Rida, whose name is Tramar Dillard, was bling-free on Tuesday as he tried to escape notice in the sprawling courthouse.
The multimillionaire wore a bulky, olive Balenciaga parka that retails for $2,950, slim-fitting black jeans, and nondescript black sneakers.
Nearly his entire head was obscured by his pulled-up parka collar, his pulled-down black bucket hat, and a large black-cloth COVID mask.
He removed the hat only when before Shira Atzmon, the Bronx family court support magistrate who has presided over the couple's legal skirmishes for five years.
Flo Rida gave Atzmon his address for the record and his affirmation that he would tell the truth — but he didn't speak publicly, including to Insider.
After court, he waited in a nearby deli for his chauffeur to bring his silver Mercedes van around, then dashed inside, holding a blue folder to his face.
Flo Rida hiding his face outside the court after his child-support hearing.
Adams, who wore a trim dark pantsuit and a sleek ponytail, also didn't speak after the hearing.
"She's grateful to the court, and that it's over," her attorney, Dror Bikel, told Insider at the conclusion of the tense, morning-long negotiations, which was held mostly in the hallway of the courthouse's windowless bottom floor.
At one point, as Flo Rida and Adams sat alone on opposite ends of a long hallway, Bikel and the rapper's attorney, Stephen L. Drummond, shouted at each other near the door to the courtroom.
"Either we're going to go to trial, or we're reaching an agreement — I don't want to talk anymore," Adams' lawyer told Flo Rida's lawyer.
"You want war? I'm ready for war," Flo Rida's lawyer shouted back.
"I'm waiting for a number from you," he added. "I was in the Marine Corps. I'm used to war."
Alexis Adams, the mother of Flo Rida's son, outside court after their child-support hearing.
Adams alleged that she resorted to going on Medicaid after the "Low" rapper failed to pay health insurance and medical bills following Zohar's accidental fall. The boy, who was born neurologically disabled, had a shattered pelvis, fractures in his left foot, and internal bleeding after the fall.
Adams has alleged that the rapper failed for years to abide by a 2018 support order requiring $9,000 a month plus medical and school costs for the child, over whom she has full custody.
Since then, Adams alleged that Flo Rida remained behind in his payments and that he stopped paying the medical insurance for the boy soon after his March 4 accidental fall from a fifth-floor window of their apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Flo Rida's finances appear to be in good shape, though. In January, he was awarded $82.6 million from the energy-drink company Celsius, courtesy of a Florida jury.
The rapper and his production company, Strong Arm Productions, sued Celsius in May 2021 for violating the stock-option provisions of a 2014-2018 endorsement deal.
Flo Rida told NBC News that he had gained a "new respect for the judicial system" after the jury's verdict.
Atzmon was cordial to both parties on Tuesday. When Drummond, Flo Rida's attorney, thanked her for her patience as they spent the morning hammering out an agreement, she answered, "I'm glad. I'd much rather you both compromise than get a decision from me."
But Atzmon had scolded Flo Rida, through another of his lawyers, during a hearing in 2018, according to Bossip.
When asked by the lawyer whether Flo Rida could have a say in which school Zohar attended to ensure tuition costs were "reasonable," — the magistrate said, "What does he care?" the news site reported.
"He's not involved in this child's life. He's met him once," the news site quoted the magistrate saying. "This is all about money, and I've had it up to here."
Flo Rida was now hoping to arrange monthly visits, Drummond told Atzmon on Tuesday.
"He wants to have visitation with his son," Drummond said. "This is something we'd really like to see."
As a support magistrate, Atzmon said it was beyond her purview to order visitation and wished the parents well in working out a visitation schedule.
Flo Rida had been a megastar for a decade by the time Zohar was born; the rapper's 2007 breakout single, "Low," became a club classic and topped the Billboard charts for 10 weeks.
The couple's child has autism and a neurological disorder called hydrocephalus, Adam's lawyers said.
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