Lil Nas X pleads not guilty to felony charges after LA arrest

Rapper Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty to injuring a police officer and resisting arrest after he was detained last week while wandering the streets of Los Angeles naked.

The rapper, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, is facing three felony counts of battery with injury to a police officer and one felony count of resisting arrest. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.

Police said when they responded to a call about a nude man wandering the streets, the Grammy-winning artist charged at them.

He was taken to the hospital for a possible overdose after the incident, which happened in the early hours of Thursday, authorities said.

The 26-year-old artist was arraigned in a Los Angeles courthouse on Monday. His bail was set at $75,000 (£55,456), according to CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

The BBC has asked his representatives for comment.

Unverified videos and images published by TMZ appear to show the rapper wandering the streets before the police altercation unfolded. They show the Old Town Road singer dancing along a Los Angeles street in Studio City, wearing just white underwear and white cowboy boots.

Later, he was seen completely nude and walking in the centre of a road. Footage published by TMZ shows him approaching a passing car as he raps lyrics from Kayne West’s song “Monster”.

His white cowboy boots, meanwhile, were apparently picked up by a passerby who listed them on eBay with a price tag of $10,000.

LA police told the BBC they had responded to reports of a nude man walking in the street along Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. He charged at officers when they got to the scene, officer Drake Madison said.

Lil Nas X spent the weekend in jail after the arrest.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said three officers were injured during the incident while trying to take the rapper into custody.

“Attacking police officers is more than just a crime against those individuals but a direct threat to public safety,” he said on Monday. “Anyone who assaults law enforcement will face serious consequences, no matter who they are or how famous they may be.”

The rapper is expected to release his much-anticipated second studio album Dreamboy later this year, and has recently teased new music on Instagram.

Lil Nas X became the first openly gay man to receive a Country Music Association award, after he won with Old Town Road in 2019.

He won two Grammy Awards in 2020 for Old Town Road, after collaborating with Billy Ray Cyrus.

The song also won two Grammys and broke the record for the longest-running number one song on the Billboard Hot 100, after 17 weeks at the top of the charts.

The singer has courted controversy throughout his career, with some conservatives in the US criticising the music video for his hit single Montero (Call Me By Your Name).

The singer responded with a fake apology video on YouTube, which cut into Montero’s infamous lap-dancing scene, and wrote on Twitter that he wanted his haters’ tears to “fill my Grammy cup”.