Rapper NBA YoungBoy among 16 arrested in Louisiana’s capital

BATON ROUGE, La. — Rap artist NBA YoungBoy is among 16 people arrested Monday on drug and firearm charges in Louisiana’s capital city.

The rapper whose given name is Kentrell Gaulden, 20, faces multiple drug charges following a gathering Monday night in Baton Rouge, city police told news outlets.

He was being held Tuesday in the parish jail, the online roster showed. Bond had not yet been set. It was not clear whether he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Police said the other people arrested face similar charges.

The circumstances and details that led to Gaulden’s arrest were not immediately available.

Gaulden rose to national acclaim as a teenager in Baton Rouge, but his success has been fraught with violence and drama. He served 90 days in jail last year after state District Judge Bonnie Jackson handed down a temporary probation hold in a 2016 nonfatal shooting case. Prosecutors had moved to revoke his probation entirely, which would have sent him to prison for 10 years, following his involvement in a Miami shootout on Mother’s Day 2019 that left a bystander dead.

The judge had given Gaulden a suspended 10-year prison term in August 2017 and put him on probation for three years after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm in the 2016 shooting. But Jackson decided in December that the rapper had served enough time under court supervision and released him.

The Associated Press