MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CELEBRITY NEWS

Silentó's crimes: Spitting bars to assault charges, how did 'Whip/Nae Nae' rapper end up on wrong side of law?

The 22-year-old singer was caught on August 29 for allegedly barging into a random home on Burbank Boulevard in Valley Village while wielding a hatchet

Rapper Silentó, whose real name is Richard Lamar Hawk, seems to be making headlines for all the wrong reasons. He was arrested for allegedly using a hatchet while searching for his girlfriend, authorities said, according to Page Six.

The 22-year-old singer was caught on August 29 for allegedly barging into a random home on Burbank Boulevard in Valley Village, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, with a hatchet in his hand. According to a TMZ report, he was allegedly loud and even threatened people with the hatchet while looking for his girlfriend. He is facing felony charges.

The TMZ report states that a resident of the house screamed for help, while the other members inside tackled and disarmed him. But after some time, his friend arrived and told him that it was the wrong house. The duo allegedly fled the spot as cops were called. At the time of the incident, the homeowners and their children were present. But there were no injuries reported, as per the authorities. The artiste was arrested about a block away and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, police said.

This arrest comes a day after it was reported that he was arrested in Orange County on August 28 over an alleged domestic dispute. According to ABC News, "He was booked and released on a charge of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant." However, the person who was injured has not been revealed.

In 2015, he became famous after releasing his hit single 'Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)' which topped the music charts. According to Ace Showbiz, the music video has have been viewed more than 1.7B times on YouTube. This song supposedly inspired a hip hop dance craze and many fans shared their own dance videos to the song on social media.

However, in 2017 he had to face legal trouble. In March that year, the Associated Press (AP) reported that the rapper was stopped from leaving the United Arab Emirates over a business dispute. The report states that a court ruling had been issued against Silento in the city of Al Ain, that ordered the musician to pay a local promoter 300,000 dirhams ($81,500) after he did not perform two scheduled shows.

The judgment had issued a travel ban on the rapper and had ordered him to surrender his passport to the court until the case is settled. His lawyer Jenna Kadhum, who represented Silento in the Middle East, had said, "Silento did not cancel any shows at all." Allegedly, the problem started because Silento was supposed to play in Al Ain and the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, according to Makki Taj El Sir Abdel Halim, who owns event organizer Mackie Entertainment. Halim claimed that he just wanted to recover lost expenses, which included performance fees as well as travel and marketing costs. As quoted by AP he said, "He didn’t show up. I just want to get my own money back.... I don’t want to ruin his reputation." The rapper admitted his legal trouble and according to a video posted by The National at that time, he had told the audience at the end of a show in a club, "I can't even leave the UAE but I'm still in the club."
 
But a few days later, he returned to the US. He later told TMZ that the case was dismissed because he was 19 and considered to be a minor in the Middle Eastern country. "They tried to make a fake case on me saying that I took some money or I didn’t show up at a show, when the promoter didn’t follow through with the requirements for me to do a show," he had told at that time.

He further explained, "I was not detained, I did not give up my passport at all. I made some phone calls. Life is all about contacts. The lawyers, they was talking and they got everything together and I was clear to go in the next 48 hours." The singer said he paid the necessary legal fees and was planning to sue the promoter for other shows that he had missed because of this case.

In the latest hatchet-wielding case, according to the sheriff's department records, as of September 2 afternoon, Silento remained in custody on a $105,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear at 8.30 am on September 4 at the Van Nuys Courthouse at 14400 Erwin Street Mall.

Twitter reacted to the recent news about him. One user said, "So is anyone gonna talk abt why silento was lookin for his GIRLFRIEND with a HATCHET???? i hope she's ok.. that is scary as s**t even if he didn't find her."

Another said, "Do people actually want to free silento? I mean I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to walk into a random persons house with a hatchet."

Another said, "Wtf is going on with Silento? How tf do you walk into a random family's house with a hatchet?"