Musician Lil Nas X pleaded not guilty on Monday to felony charges after police said he assaulted officers who approached him while he was found wandering the streets of LA in his underwear.
A Los Angeles judge set bail at $75,000 and said the Old Town Road singer must attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Police said they believed Lil Nas X was using drugs at the time of the incident.
His attorney, Christy O'Connor, however, said the singer was not taking illegal drugs and that the episode was an aberration in his life.
On Friday, prosecutors charged the musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, with three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer, the District Attorney's Office said.
The rapper was initially booked on suspicion of obstructing an officer. Police said officers found the 26-year-old walking naked on Ventura Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the Studio City area. They say he charged at the officers when confronted and was arrested.
Police took him to a hospital where he spent several hours before being taken to jail, where he has remained since.
The charges were first reported by TMZ.
The rapper and singer from Atlanta is best known for his huge hit from 2018, Old Town Road, which merged country and hip-hop. It spent a record 19 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, his first full studio album, 2021’s Montero, went to number two on the Billboard album chart in the US and was nominated for a Grammy for Album of the Year.
Source: Press Association
