Rapper Lil Nas X was charged with four felonies on Monday after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week.
Prosecutors charged the Old Town Road rapper, 26, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, with three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one felony count of resisting an executive officer, the District Attorney’s office said.
He was initially booked on suspicion of misdemeanour obstructing an officer on Aug. 22.
Nas is set to be arraigned later Monday and his representatives have not officially commented following the reports last week.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said officers found Nas walking naked on Ventura Boulevard, shortly before 6 a.m. local time on Friday.
They said he charged at the officers when confronted and was arrested. Police suspected a possible overdose and took him to a hospital where he spent several hours before being taken to jail, where he has remained since his arrest.
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Someone driving by Nas recorded him, while he repeatedly pointed at the camera and at one point placed an orange traffic cone on his head.
“Hey, don’t be late to the party tonight,” Nas tells the person behind the camera. “You know where it’s at.”
“Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down?” he asks the person. “Uh-oh, somebody’s going to have to pay for that!”
Nas goes on to say that it’s going to be “a beautiful sunrise” and threatens to throw the person’s phone.
“I’m going to throw it far away so you never see it again. I don’t like phones,” he says in the video.
According to TMZ, who first reported the incident, several people in the area had reported seeing “a naked man” walking in the road. When the LAPD officers reportedly responded, they found Nas walking down the middle of the road.
In 2019, the rapper rose to fame after his breakthrough single, Old Town Road, became a viral hit.
Nas is set to release his upcoming second studio album, Dreamboy, later this year.
—With files from The Associated Press
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