Rapper NBA YoungBoy was arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles on Monday (March 22) after reportedly fleeing from LAPD officers after an attempted traffic stop on an outstanding warrant.
According to Baton Rouge’s WBRZ, the 21 year-old MC (born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden) was reportedly taken into custody after Los Angeles police tried to pull his car over in connection with an outstanding federal warrant.
Following a short pursuit, Gaulden (who also goes by YoungBoy Never Broke Again) stopped the car and reportedly took off on foot as officers brought in a K-9 unit to track him down. LAPD officers reportedly found a firearm in his vehicle, though WBRZ reported that it was unclear if it belonged to the rapper; at press time a spokesperson for NBA YoungBoy and the rapper’s attorney had not returned requests for additional comment on the arrest.
According to an LAPD spokesperson, the FBI is handling the booking and charging in the case; an FBI spokesperson told Billboard on Tuesday morning (March 23) that the bureau cannot comment on ongoing investigations, declining to confirm whether the rapper was in their custody.
Gaulden was arrested in his native Baton Rouge in September on the set of a video shoot along with 16 others on weapons and drug charges, with the FBI reportedly looking into the matter. According to the Baton Rouge Sheriff Office’s website at the time, the artist was charged with possession of a schedule 1 drug, as well as distributing and manufacturing of schedule 2 and 4 drugs. There was no mentions of firearms charges following that arrest.
“Kentrell Gaulden is innocent of the crimes he was arrested for yesterday evening. He did not possess any firearms nor did he possess any controlled dangerous substances,” his attorney James Manasseh told Billboard after the September arrest. According to Manasseh, law enforcement officials arrived after receiving a tip that guns were present, and allegedly without evidence that there had been a crime. “No firearms or controlled dangerous substances were found on Mr. Gaulden’s person or in his immediate control.”
The MC had several run-ins with the law last year, including an arrest in February in Atlanta on a disorderly conduct charge and the arrest of his associate Trulondrick Norman in June on a second degree murder charge from a 2016 non-fatal drive-by shooting in Louisiana.
