Ashanti Settles Up (E! Online)

The R&B diva has settled a lawsuit brought by ex-producer Genard Parker, who claimed she owed him more than $2 million in fees and royalties for helping launch her career when she was just a teenager.

Attorneys for both sides announced the settlement Tuesday--one day into a trial to determine how much Parker was due.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed--it isn't known whether any money was exchanged--but both parties said they were pleased to put an end to what was becoming a nasty legal spat.

Outside the courtroom, the "Foolish" songbird, whose real name is Ashanti Douglas, expressed relief over the settlement and said she was looking forward to getting back to the business of making music.

"I'd rather be in the studio writing," Ashanti told the Associated Press.

Her attorney, Alan Kaminsky, called the settlement an "excellent result," while Parker said he was "happy it's over."

Parker, a songwriter and producer who has collaborated with the likes of Sean "Diddy" Combs and K-Ci and JoJo, had accused Ashanti of reneging on a deal to pay him royalties from sales from her first three albums. He claimed they had struck such a deal in exchange for him releasing her from the original contract she signed back in 1997, when she was only 16--years before she signed with the Inc. and became a chart-topping fixture in 2002.

The case went to trial in July 2005. The jury found Ashanti liable for breach of contract and awarded Parker $630,000 in back royalties. A judge later reduced that judgment to $50,000 after determining jurors did not have all the facts when they decided on a monetary amount.

That result led to a second trial that kicked off Monday to determine the amount of damages.

During opening statements, Parker's attorney, Latif Doman, told the court that Ashanti owed Parker $2.3 million, a percentage stemming from the 6 million in sales of her first three major-label CDs.

But Kaminsky countered that a technicality voided the contract. He said Ashanti agreed to pay Parker royalties from the first three albums with whatever record company she signed with after leaving Parker. Kaminsky said the first label that signed Ashanti ended up dropping her without releasing any music.

The performer didn't score her first big success until she landed on Irv Gotti's label, Murder Inc., now simply known as the Inc.

After a series of collaborations with Ja Rule and a brief appearance as a featured artist on 2001's Fast and the Furious soundtrack, Ashanti's 2002's self-titled debut entered the Billboard 200 at number one and went multiplatinum. She has since released two more albums, Chapter II and Concrete Rose, and acted in such films as Coach Carter and John Tucker Must Die.

Taking the stand Monday, Ashanti, now 25, testified that all she wanted was to follow her dream when she recorded her first tracks in the producer's Bronx home studio back in 1996. She said that she hadn't seen or spoken to Parker in nearly a decade--and had no idea how to contact him--before he filed his lawsuit.

The settlement makes one less legal entanglement on Ashanti's calendar. In June, the Grammy-winning singer was sued by ex-manager Linda Berk who's seeking millions of dollars in damages for alleged breach of contract.