Ashanti calls a truce with producer

Ashanti and her first producer, Genard Parker, dropped all litigation Tuesday in a contract dispute, ending a trial that began in New York City a day earlier.

If any money changed hands, their lawyers refused to talk about it, saying only that everyone was pleased that the bitter battle was over.

Parker, the producer who had helped Ashanti record some demo tapes of several songs at his apartment when she was 16, said outside court that he was “happy it’s over.”

Last year, another jury concluded that Ashanti broke a contract with Parker and owed him $630,000. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff rejected all but $50,000 of the award on the ground that the jurors did not have adequate facts to determine damages so they were left to speculate.

The judge’s decision led to the new trial, in which Parker had been seeking $2.3 million.