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Rapper Talib Kweli was praised by the University of Utah's official Twitter account for an "impactful and thought-provoking" keynote address during its Jan. 21 Martin Luther King celebration, after which, the account noted, it was "pretty cool" that Kweli stuck around to answer students' questions.

The following week, the Brooklyn native scolded the U. in a string of since-deleted tweets for claiming he hadn't fulfilled the terms of his contract.

An email dated Jan. 28 from an agent at American Program Bureau (APB) to Kweli — obtained via a request for correspondence between the U. and Kweli or his representatives — reads, "We are wiring the money today. Please stop tweeting."

Kweli, who has more than 1 million followers on Twitter, answered: "The tweets stop when I get my MONEY. How dare they. Don't EVER disrespect my time and efforts."

Kweli and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

U. Office for Equity and Diversity communications director Neelam Chand earlier had written to APB that Kweli was "consistently unapproachable and unavailable to interact with our event attendees."

Wrote Chand: "We were hugely dissatisfied, considering the money and time invested, as opposed to the value we received in return."

The correspondence indicates Chand, who declined comment for this story, asked Kweli to refund $2,500 upon payment.

The U. agreed in advance to a confidentiality claim with APB and was not at liberty to provide the contract, it told The Salt Lake Tribune.

Chand wrote that Kweli was unwilling to give informal remarks at a reception the night before his address and stayed for 15 to 20 minutes when the reception was scheduled to last an hour-and-a-half. Before his keynote address, Kweli declined to give a 10-minute "spoken word" performance, "which resulted in embarrassment for us and, yet again, disappointment for our audience." And Chand wrote that Kweli spent just five minutes at a lunch after the address instead of an agreed-upon hour.

An APB agent told Kweli that "[g]iven that we cleared the itinerary for the visit ahead of time, and per the signed speaker contract attached, I didn't feel I had much room to argue with [Chand]" about refunding $2,500.

Kweli provided a detailed defense to Chand's charges. The gist: He did more than usual for the amount he was paid — speaking and answering questions for twice as long as he was obligated to do at the keynote itself — and where he didn't fulfill the terms of his contract, it was with the blessing or even at the suggestion of Chand.

"[I]f there were any issues, they should have been addressed to me while I was at the school, not a week later with this bulls—- letter," Kweli wrote. "I expect to get paid in full. Today. Or I am going public with everything in this email. I will personally tag every student who tweeted that day, post on my [Facebook] and Twitter about how University of Utah is trying to rip me off. F—- around if you want. This will not be pretty for the school."

Kweli has collaborated with Mos Def, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams and has a history of political activism. He performed at the U. student government's annual spring Grand Kerfuffle concert in 2014.

He wrote after the money was wired that "[i]t's ridiculous that it even had to get to this point over money I've been owed for over a week.

"Everyone involved clearly enjoyed what I brought to the table. It's very unfair to make me feel guilty for asking for money that I'm owed."

Upon payment, Kweli tweeted that he was "deleting the tweets it took to get paid," to which the U.'s official Twitter account responded that his visit was a "highlight" of the week and that it didn't want it "marred by differences on appearance details."

Asked why Kweli was paid in full if he didn't meet the terms of his contract, U. communications director Maria O'Mara told The Tribune: "Because really, at the end of the day, our differences over the contract were so small, they didn't even deserve 140 characters. Our MLK week events were a great success, our speakers well-received and deeply appreciated."

Twitter: @matthew_piper