Rapper Killer Mike had a rollercoaster day on Sunday at the Grammy Awards: After winning Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, and Best Rap Performance during the afternoon Premiere Ceremony, which takes place ahead of the televised Grammys broadcast, a video captured by a Hollywood Reporter journalist showed the rapper being led away in handcuffs at the Crypto.com Arena by the Los Angeles Police Department.
In a social media post shared later in the evening, the LAPD confirmed that the rapper born Michael Render was detained, questioned, and booked on a misdemeanor assault charge related to a physical altercation earlier in the day at the same arena involving a third party. Render was released on Sunday night on his own recognizance.
An official tells someone on his team that it’s possible he may be released later tonight from the arena. Unclear if he’s being booked here and what he’s charged with. Trying to find out. #Grammys pic.twitter.com/undjtECFu1
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) February 5, 2024
The suspect has been identified as 48-year-old Michael Render and booked for Misdemeanor Battery 243(A) PC, and is in the process of being released.
— LAPD PIO (@LAPDPIO) February 5, 2024
The arrest happened a few hours after Killer Mike took home his first Grammy in 21 years and his first-ever Grammy for his solo work. The prolific Atlanta rapper and activist won Best Rap Album for MICHAEL and both Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for “Scientists & Engineers”, his collaboration with André 3000, Future, and Eryn Allen Kane.
“You cannot tell me that you get too old, you can’t tell me it’s too late,” Killer Mike, 48, joyously exclaimed from the Grammy stage after his multiple wins. Later, when he was taking questions from the media—shortly before the arrest—he added, “If it feels like some people are reaching the finish line first, don’t worry. Just keep running your race. The only thing stopping you is your imagination. It’s our responsibility to be grand in every action.”
DREAMS COME TRUE – IT’S A SWEEP!
☦️ : https://t.co/DCFvuyHT2w pic.twitter.com/8Zu2OtcK5h
— Killer Mike (@KillerMike) February 5, 2024
“SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” Wins Best Rap Song | 2024 GRAMMYs
During a Monday morning interview on V103‘s Big Tigger Morning Show, the Atlanta-native rapper and activist was focused on the evening’s highs rather than its lows. Per Billboard, “Mike, who said he’d been up all night at parties, appeared to downplay the incident when host Tigger asked ‘what happened’ on Sunday night. ‘I won a Grammy,’ Mike said. ‘We party all night. Shout out to my record label. Ain’t nothing had happened, man. But we winners. That’s it. … Didn’t I look good? I was fresh. All black, man. … We hit a speed bump and then we hit back to the party.”
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Sunday marked Killer Mike’s first Grammy since he took home the award for Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or Group for his work on “The Whole World” with OutKast in 2003. He was then nominated again in 2018 for Run The Jewels‘ song “Chase Me”.