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Triple Grammy Award-winner dragged out of ceremony in handcuffs!

February 5, 2024 | | Print Article

After sweeping his categories, a triple Grammy Award-winner was swept away from the ceremony in handcuffs Sunday: “Yeah, I’m serious.”

Artists and hangers-on gathered at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California to attend the 66th annual award show where many were enamored by the duet of “Fast Car” shared by Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs. However, an entirely different sort of spectacle took place for Michael Render, the rapper known as Killer Mike, when he was carted off by the LAPD shortly after securing three Grammys.

Video shared by Chris Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter showed as the artist, who had won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for the song “Scientists and Engineers” alongside Best Rap Album for “Michael,” was led away as someone could be heard asking, “Mike, are you serious?”

“Yeah, I’m serious?” the cuffed entertainer offered in reply.

Gardner went on to detail, “Just spoke to an official who tells me it’s a misdemeanor and has nothing to do with anything that happened today here inside the arena. Likely he will be released once it’s sorted. ‘It’s a big nothing,’ source says.”

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Hours later, the LAPD Media Relations Division provided limited details on the situation as a statement was released indicating where a physical altercation was alleged to have taken place that resulted in Render facing a misdemeanor battery charge.

“On Sunday February 4th just after 4pm a male adult was detained & handcuffed for a physical altercation that occurred at the 700 block of Chick Hearn Court. The suspect was placed under arrest and was transported to LAPD Central Division,” the official X account read. “The suspect has been identified as 48-year-old Michael Render and booked for Misdemeanor Battery 243(A) PC, and is in the process of being released.”

While many criticized the timing of the arrest and how it may have impacted Render’s celebration of his accomplishments, others couldn’t help but note how it also coincided with remarks he made on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” when he refused to endorse President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

At first remaining neutral, the rapper encouraged voters to disregard personalities and to put the focus on what individual candidates supported even if they were a long shot. “My feeling is, pick your policy not your person. Find out — this is not the Dallas Cowboys versus your favorite team. This is, this is the policies that will affect our generation for the next 20, 30, 40 years to come. So, close your eyes, listen to the policies that are being put and, and pay attention — even to the people who don’t have a chance of winning, because they’re gonna say policies you may want to push.”

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When pressed by Maher who asked, “You can’t get yourself to say ‘Vote for Biden over Trump’?” Render responded, “Can he get himself to apologize for the crime bill? Can he get himself to get his head out of his a** to say black people, you are black regardless, I need you to tell me what I need to do? Can he pick a coalition of former people who were affected by drug laws, street gangs, and recidivism in crime and say I need you as a board to advise me how to fix federal prisons? If he can do that, absolutely I can. So my challenge is out there.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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