Photos: Nelly's Fifth-Annual Black and White Ball at the Chase Park Plaza

Egan O'Keefe

Last night, Nelly held his fifth annual Black & White Ball at the Chase Park Plaza. Celebrities, athletes and various members of the local glitterati came to to the Jermaine Dupri co-hosted event. DJ Charlie Chan warmed the crowd up with a DJ set full of contemporary pop, hip-hop and soul hits. And then DMC (of Run-DMC fame) showed up and performed. Sporting a Motley Crue T-shirt, he succeeded most with well-known cuts such as "It's Tricky" and "Walk This Way." (A shaky cover of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" unfortunately wasn't quite as well-received.) R&B songstress Ashanti performed next. Her voice, which tended to be girlish on her studio tracks, was strong and powerful live. Girl has pipes! "Foolish," "What's Luv?" and "Always on Time" were particularly strong. Photographer Egan O'Keefe was there and brought back a slideshow of photos. Take a look at a few more below.

Egan O'Keefe

Joe Edwards and crew

Egan O'Keefe

Reveling.