Flavor Flav vs. The Manager of Flav's Fried Chicken

Players: Flavor Flav: Public Enemy rapper and owner of Flav's Fried Chicken in Clinton, Iowa; Flav's Fried Chicken Manager Nick Cimino.


Opening Serve: While visiting the Iowa restaurant earlier this month, Flav discovered several managing deficiencies including reports from employees of bouncing paychecks and vats of expired food. Flav told TMZ, "Let me be straight up with you, I went up inside there on April 2 and I found potato salad that expired on February 28. And it's then when I realized I can't do business with this man and I really hope no one ate those potatoes."

Return Volley: Cimino insists the employees' failed paychecks were the result of a "credit card glitch," and that "the restuarant was his idea," the Guardian reports. Cimino told Iowa television news network WQAD, "[He] wants to become a millionaire off my dime, off my ideas. I started this. I put together everything from the menu to the colour of the building to the sign."

What They Say the Fight's About: Flav doesn't want his name attached to a mismanaged restaurant. Cimino resents the rapper's decision to close the business that, he says, was his brainchild.

What the Fight's Really About: The typical challenges faced by a business owner and the manager hired to run the place, except with added dash of a VH1-level celebrity. Unable (or unwilling) to move to Iowa and manage the restaurant himself, Flav relied on Cimino to keep things running smoothly. Cimino, on the other hand, who, according to the Guardian, "stood to collect 40 percent of profits," clearly felt a sense of ownership over Flav's Fried Chicken. He's frustrated that he not only didn't have a say in the restaurant's closing but also that Flav's celebrity status gave him all the credit for the short-lived, but entertaining business venture.

Who's Winning Now: In a spatwatch first, it seems like both parties are winning in the end. WQAD reports that Flavor Flav is already moving on with a new restaurant endeavor, Flavor Flav's House of Flavor, set to open in Las Vagas this May. Cimino is also decidedly better off. He told the local station, "I'm just glad I'm free of somebody like Flavor Flav."