After being slapped with a DUI charge earlier this year, rapper Flo Rida is once again in trouble with the law. After reportedly showing up late and being turned away from performing at a show in Australia, Flo Rida’s hotel suite was raided by police, who confiscated marijuana and other illegal items from the rapper’s room.
According to HipHopDX, the weekend got off to a rocky start for Flo Rida, who was set to perform at Newcastle’s Fat As Butter Festival on Oct. 22 before abruptly being pulled from the show. According to the festival’s promoters, who released a statement via their Facebook page voicing their anger, Flo Rida showed up hours late to the venue and was “not in a suitable to perform” upon his arrival.
“The club did everything in its power to meet the needs of Flo Rida and his management. From the demands for late specialty items in his dressing room, to offering to pay all transport expenses to get him and his entourage to the venue (after his own arrangements supposedly fell through)…Many promises were made and broken by Flo Rida and his management last night. And every time we got our hopes up that he was in transit to the venue, we would find out that he had not in fact left his hotel room. The most difficult part was then turning him away from the Club when he finally arrived nearly 3 hours after he was due on stage. We did not believe he was in a suitable condition to perform,” read the statement.
Flo Rida then responded with his own statement, explaining to disappointed Aussie fans that his absence was “due to unforeseen circumstances.”
“Australian fans, I was looking forward to performing for you but due to unforeseen circumstances I wasn’t able to do so last night,” tweeted Flo Rida.
Unfortunately for Flo Rida, the unfortunate “unforeseen circumstances” continued to hamper his weekend.
According to Australia’s Townsville Bulletin, On Oct. 23, Flo Rida and his entourage flew to Townsville for the final show of his Australian tour at Jupiters Townsville Hotel and Casino. Shortly before his performance, the Northern Region Drug Squad received a tip that a “strong smell of burnt cannabis” was emanating from room 914 of the hotel and casino, where Flo Rida was staying.
At around 8:40 p.m., police raided Flo Rida’s room and confiscated a list of illegal items, including a bag containing about 16g of green, leafy material; a joint containing a gram of cannabis; three grinders; a set of scales with flecks of green, leafy material; a cannabis tablet; a Viagra tablet; two small containers of chopped leafy material less than 1g; a 10ml liquid cannabis bottle; and a black Uzi Taser.
Flo Rida himself wasn’t arrested but his personal assistant, Dakari Dalawn Phillips, was taken into custody by police and charged with possessing dangerous drugs; unlawful possession of restricted drugs; possessing property suspected of having being used in connection with the commission of a drug offence; and an unlawful possession of weapons offense.
Luckily for Phillips, because of and early plea and a clean record, he was only fined $1800 and released from custody hours later.
Considering that Flo Rida avoided any jail time, we’d say that Phillips isn’t the only one who should thank his lucky stars that things didn’t turn out any worse. –nicholas robinson
