Ms. Dynamite Cops Plea
Yes, Ms. Dynamite has a short fuse.
The British rapper
has copped to charges of smacking down a female police officer outside a
London nightclub last week.
The artist, whose real name is
Niomi Mclean-Daley, pleaded guilty Friday to assault and disorderly
conduct stemming from her Jan. 6 arrest.
The incident occurred Wikipedia
while Ms. Dynamite was reportedly out celebrating her 25th birthday with
her younger brother, businessman Kingsley Daley, at West London’s
Paragon Lounge. We’re not quite sure why she was celebrating her
birthday in January–her
1981. In any case, police were called in to investigate a “large
disturbance” near the trendy club’s entrance.
According to
authorities, officers witnessed the brash entertainer kicking a door.
“She was told to calm down on repeated occasions but didn’t,” prosecutor
Audrey Hawkes told the BBC.
Hawkes said the rapper became
verbally abusive and was arrested. Her 22-year-old brother was charged
with obstructing police and another acquaintance, Carline Godwin, 24,
with disturbing the peace.
The confrontation allegedly didn’t
end there, however. Ms. Dynamite was transported to a nearby police
station, but instead of going quietly, she began screaming again and
“hit the police officer once with an open palm on the side of the face,”
Hawkes said. “There was no injury.”
Ms. Dynamite’s defense
counsel, Anthony Burton, told the BBC that the entertainer had become
upset after she and her 18-year-old sister were targeted racial remarks.
While he refused to elaborate, the attorney did say that press accounts
that Ms. Dynamite punched the officer were inaccurate and that both
sides have since concurred that she only slapped the officer.
District Judge Caroline Tubbs has not ruled out a possible jail term for
the hip-hopster when she is sentenced Jan. 27. Daley and Godwin,
meanwhile, have pleaded not guilty to their charges. All three have
been released on bail.
Ms. Dynamite is perhaps best known
Stateside for her seductive 2002 debut, A Little Deeper, which
won her Britain’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize for Album of the Year
for 2002. After taking time off to have a baby, she returned to
performing last summer, appearing on the London bill of Live 8.