Lil Nas X pleads not guilty to four charges, including battery of a police officer

Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty to four felony charges following his arrest while wandering the streets of Los Angeles last week.

On Thursday (August 21), the ‘Old Town Road’ rapper was reportedly spotted walking down the street in his underwear in Studio City in the early morning hours. Los Angeles Police Department officers attempted to approach him, at which point Lil Nas X reportedly charged at them. He was placed in handcuffs and escorted to hospital to be treated for a possible overdose.

A video shared by TMZ at the time appeared to show the rapper – real name Montero Lamar Hill – speaking incoherently as he walked down the streets around his home.

On Monday (August 25), Hill was charged with three counts of battery against a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer, according to Los Angeles Superior Court records (via Variety).

He was arraigned before Judge Sarah Ellenberg in Van Nuys, California, with bail set at £75,000 (£55,460). He pleaded not guilty to all charges and the case will now move to pretrial on September 15.

The rapper remained behind bars over the weekend, with LAPD having cited a law concerning resisting or obstructing an officer. “The arrestee cannot be cited out,” police said on Saturday. “It is mandatory that he appear before a judge before he is released. This will happen on Monday.”

A previous police statement said that Hill had “charged at officers and was taken into custody. He was transported to a local hospital for a possible overdose and placed under arrest for battery on a police officer.”

The incident came just days after Lil Nas X deleted his Instagram history and renamed his account ‘QUEEN MADELINE’. He had since posted a number of images of artwork and shared clips of possible new music.

In April, the rapper suffered partial paralysis in the right side of his face, explaining in a social media post that he had “lost control” of some muscles. A few days later, he said he had regained some of the lost movement, telling fans that he had been instructed to chew gum to strengthen his muscles.

He released the ‘Days Before Dreamboy’ EP in March via Columbia Records, which was intended to be the latest step of a new album campaign. The album ‘DREAMBOY’ had been predicted for a 2025 release, although no date has been confirmed.

It will be his first full-length album since his 2021 debut ‘Montero’, which included the hit singles ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ and ‘Industry Baby’ with Jack Harlow.

In a three-star review of that album, NME wrote: “Mostly, it’s refreshing to see Lil Nas X in a different, more reflective light, but in asserting himself so strongly as a Serious Artist, he occasionally forgets about the touch of magic that made him one in the first place.”

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