Kidnap victim Amanda Berry received the hip-hop treatment this past weekend. Missouri-born rapper, Nelly, headlined RoverFest 2013 in Cleveland on Saturday and surprised many when he invited Berry and her family to the stage.
This was Berry’s first public appearance since being rescued from a Cleveland home where she was held against her will for a decade.
Nelly told the crowd, “That’s how you tell the pulse of a city by the people that live there. Since they up here right now, I want to make sure that we get a chance to thank you because I know it’s a long time and I can’t even imagine the type of strength and the type of courage that it took to keep it going.”
Berry, wearing sunglasses, jeans and a black T-shirt, stepped onstage with her family.
The initial invitation came from radio talk show host Shane French of Rover’s Morning Glory on WMMS in Cleveland who told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Sunday, “I just said that she had 10 years of partying to make up for and she should come.”
Berry’s appearance came one day after her abductor, Ariel Castro, plead guilty to kidnap and rape charges of Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.
Watch a video of the appearance below:
