Rapper Mystikal Arrested on Rape, Domestic Abuse Charges

Bill Donahue and Starr Bowenbank
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Rapper Mystikal was arrested Sunday (July 31) in Louisiana on charges that included rape and strangulation, according to public jail records reviewed by Billboard.

The 51-year-old artist was booked into Ascension Parish Prison on charges of first-degree rape, felony domestic abuse by strangulation, false imprisonment, simple robbery and criminal damage to property, records show.

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Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre told NBC News that law enforcement responded to a local hospital late on Saturday in reference to a sexual assault. The rapper was named a suspect after police spoke with the victim.

“He was arrested and booked into the Ascension Parish Jail,” Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Donovan Jackson told NBC News of Mystikal, noting that this is an “ongoing investigation.”

Billboard has reached out to Mystikal for comment.

The rapper previously served six years after being convicted of sexual battery and extortion. He was released in January 2010, and had to register as a sex offender in Louisiana. He also faced a rape charge in 2017, and turned himself in to Louisiana’s Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Department after a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was later charged with rape and kidnapping — to which he pleaded not guilty — and was held at the Caddo Correctional Center before posting a $3 million bond in 2019. The charges were dropped in 2020.

“[That] was like a reoccurring bad dream,” Mystical told the Associated Press in 2021 of that specific case. “I didn’t know how it was going to work out.”

Mystikal has also faced two misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns for 1998 and 1999, and a misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse battery in 2012, the latter of which resulted in a three-month jail sentence.

The rapper, whose real name is Michael Tyler, is best known for his 2000 hit “Shake Ya Ass” and his featured credits on songs such as the chart-topping 2001 hit Stutter and Ludacris’s 2002 “Move Bitch.” Mystikal also has featured in several movies, including 13 Dead Men, Makin’ Baby, My Side Piece, Mississippi Turntup, Mac & Devin Go to High School, and more.

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