Ashanti

R&B singer Ashanti?s former manager Linda Berk, who claimed to have been instrumental in the singer's career sued her on Tuesday, seeking millions of dollars in damages for breach of contract.

In the Manhattan federal court suit, Berk said she had guided Ashanti from an unknown singer to a "music and entertainment superstar" before her contract was cut short in May 2003.

Berk and Ashanti met in 1993 and signed an initial contract in 1999 that granted Berk co-management with Ashanti's mother Tina Douglas. Four years later she was informed the contract would be terminated, the suit said.

"The contract naturally expired and we didn't renew it," a spokesman for Ashanti said.