Busta Rhymes Arrested Yet Again

January 4th, 2007

New York, NY - Aging rapper Busta Rhymes has been arrested on misdemeanor assault charges after allegedly attacking a former employee during an argument over "payroll issues," police said.

Busta Rhymes has been arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault after a man claimed the aging rapper beat him up.

Police said Rhymes, 34, turned himself in at a police station in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday night and later appeared in court.

The man told police that Rhymes assaulted him outside a building in an argument over money, Lieutenant John Grimpel said.

Grimpel said a man told police that Rhymes had punched and kicked him numerous times in a confrontation outside a lower Manhattan building on Dec. 26.

This is not the first incident of violence surrounding Rhymes, whose hits include "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See," "Dangerous" and "Touch It." He has also appeared in films, including 2000's "Shaft" and "Finding Forrester."

Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith, was arrested and charged with kicking a 19-year-old man in the head five months ago.

Police have also sought to question the rapper as a potential witness in the shooting death of his bodyguard Israel Ramirez last February.