Killer Mike Charged With Misdemeanor Battery After Altercation Outside Grammys; Award-Winning Rapper Released By LAPD – Update

UPDATED, 10:44 PM: The 66th Grammys are over, Jay-Z threw down, Taylor Swift made more history, Joni Mitchell and Celine Dion showed a rainy Los Angeles that Canadians know how to bring the heat, and triple Grammy winner Killer Mike is out of LAPD custody after being booked on a misdemeanor battery charge.

About five hours after he was publicly detained and arrested by Los Angeles police Sunday just after he won three Grammys in the pre-show earlier in the afternoon, the activist-entrepreneur-rapper has been released.

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The battery charge comes with either a potential fine up to $2,000, six months behind bars or both, under California’s penal code.

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While under LAPD questioning and awaiting release, Killer Mike took to social media frequently to post and re-post on his big sweep Sunday.

PREVIOUSLY, 6:13 PM: Killer Mike is speaking out on social media Sunday despite being handcuffed and taken into custody by the LAPD after winning three awards during the 66th Grammy Awards pre-show.

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Killer Mike, real name Mike Render, is currently still detained by the police downtown, undergoing questioning for a fight he was involved in earlier in the day with Grammys security, law enforcement sources confirmed for Deadline. No word yet on when the rapper will be released on what appears to be a potential misdemeanor.

“Officers were dispatched as soon as we were alerted of the altercation, and detained the suspect peacefully,” a police source said after the LAPD showed up as Killer Mike was leaving the backstage area of the pre-Grammys ceremony.

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Just more than an hour after being walked out of Crypto.com Arena in handcuffs, the outspoken Killer Mike did offer fans and friends timely reassurance. Taking to social media, one half of Run the Jewels expressed himself in words worthy of a Sunday.

LAPD Officer Mike Lopez could not confirm to Deadline whether it was Killer Mike who was detained, but did say a male was detained at about 4 p.m. in the vicinity of the Crypto.com Arena following a “physical altercation” this afternoon. A video from Chris Gardner of our cousin publication The Hollywood Reporter shows the WME-repped Killer Mike being led out of the arena by uniformed officers.

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Along with many of the Grammy nominees, host Trevor Noah and the elite of the music biz, Atlanta-based Killer Mike has been out on the West Coast for the past several days. That fact led some to assume the LAPD had deliberately waited to put a stain of the rapper’s big night by putting him in cuffs after his wins as a form of humiliation for some prior incident or another. The irony in that incorrect conclusion is that the politically adroit Killer Mike is the son of a police officer. Although never one to mince words, he has repeatedly displayed sympathetic and nuanced perspective to the demands and stresses that beat cops face in modern America.

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Earlier Sunday afternoon, Killer Mike surprised many by winning three of the four rap categories during the Grammys pre-show — Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Scientists & Engineers,” and Best Rap Album for Michael. They were his first solo Grammy wins; he previously won in 2003 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “The Whole World” alongside OutKast. Going into this year’s ceremony, Travis Scott had been touted as the odds-on favorite.

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Killer Mike was last on-stage in Los Angeles in mid-October when he and Run the Jewels bandmate El-P played the Hollywood Palladium.

Deadline has reached out to the Recording Academy and CBS for comment on today’s incident and will update this post when/if we receive a response.

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