A Las Vegas club is shooting down claims that Usher allegedly stiffed strippers by tipping them with fake bills.
A stripper in Las Vegas claimed that after dancing for Usher, the singer tipped her in fake “Usher bucks” — she even provided photos showing the alleged fake money. As a result, the 42-year-old’s name was trending on Twitter all day on April 12, and fans laid into him with memes about the stunt. However, TMZ is now reporting that some of the fake $1, $20, and $100 bills with Usher’s face on them were only left on stage as a “joke”. The news outlet further claims a source with close ties to Vegas’ Sapphire Strip Club told them that the singer and his entourage spent “thousands” of real dollars on dancers and bottle service. HollywoodLife reached out to both the establishment and Usher’s rep for our own comments, but we have yet to receive any responses. We also haven’t been able to independently confirm Usher’s visit to the strip club.
The online firestorm first started when one dancer, who goes by @beel0ove on Instagram, posted photos the fake Usher bucks — which the singer himself has been seen posing with on his own Instagram page — to her IG stories and asked, “Ladies what would you do if you danced all night for usher and he threw this?? She also wrote “& the money does not have a trade in value what so ever. LMAO, don’t y’all think he should be blasted on social media for this sh*t?” She got her wish, as Usher was flamed on Twitter throughout the day.
View this post on InstagramIt turns out this was all just a great big misunderstanding, according to TMZ. A rep for Sapphire told the site that “Usher did NOT tip the strippers with this fake money, and actually dished out authentic greenbacks, while also going on to tip the staff at large quite generously.”
View this post on InstagramThe site went on to report that Usher and his crew ended up spending “thousands” of real dollars on the dancers as well as bottle service, and that Sapphire’s rep said that the club would “love to host” the singer again anytime he’d like to come in.As for the funny money, TMZ reports that someone in Usher’s entourage did leave behind the Usher bucks on the stage as a “gag,” as well as to promote his upcoming Vegas residency at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace beginning in July 2021. With the amount of heat Usher took on social media following the claim that he stiffed dancers at the strip club with his fake bills, hopefully the “Yeah” singer’s crew members will no longer bring Usher bucks in to strip joints in the future to avoid any confusion.
