Rapper Mystikal arrested on rape, domestic abuse battery charges

Rapper Mystikal was jailed in Louisiana on Monday, accused of rape more than a year after prosecutors dropped charges that had kept him jailed for 18 months in another part of the state.

Michael “Mystikal” Tyler was arrested on charges including rape and domestic abuse battery, Sheriff Bobby Webre of Ascension Parish, just outside Baton Rouge, said in a Facebook post Monday.

The 51-year-old hip-hop legend is being held without bond on 10 charges, according to the sheriff’s office inmate lookup.

Attorney Joel Pearce said he believes bond will be discussed at a hearing Tuesday. Pearce said he is supposed to meet with Mystikal on Wednesday or Thursday, and will make a statement then.

Pearce represented the rapper on charges brought in 2017 accusing him of a sexual assault at a Shreveport casino in 2016. Prosecutors dropped those rape and kidnapping charges in December 2020 after new evidence was presented to a grand jury and it did not bring a new indictment.

Webre said deputies were called to a hospital just before midnight Sunday about a sexual assault and interviewed the victim, who had minor injuries.

“Through further investigation, Michael ‘Mystikal’ Tyler was identified as a suspect,” the statement said.

The new charges include first-degree rape, simple robbery, false imprisonment, simple criminal damage to property, and drug charges including possession of amphetamines. Conviction for first-degree rape carries at least a life sentence — the prosecutor can chose whether to ask for the death penalty.

Tyler pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexual battery and served six years in prison.

In April 2021, he told The Associated Press that his past put him in a “horrible fraternity,” but he was ready to move on.

Mystikal’s 2000 hit, “Shake (it Fast)” peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. His 2000 album “Let’s Get Ready” went multiplatinum.