Rapper Taken Into Custody During Early Morning Traffic Stop
Rapper Soulja Boy was taken into custody early Sunday after Los Angeles police say they discovered a firearm during a traffic stop in the Fairfax District.
Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department conducted the stop around 2:35 a.m. near Melrose Avenue and North Genesee Avenue. One of the vehicle’s passengers, identified as DeAndre Cortez Way, also known as Soulja Boy, was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, LAPD officials confirmed.
Authorities did not release details regarding the reason for the stop, who else was in the vehicle, or the type of weapon allegedly recovered. As of Sunday evening, no additional information had been made public.
The arrest adds to a history of legal troubles for the 33-year-old rapper, best known for his 2007 hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” In 2023, a jury ordered him to pay nearly $236,000 in punitive damages to a woman who alleged he assaulted her at a party in Malibu in 2019. Soulja Boy denied the allegations but had previously been ordered to pay the same amount in compensatory damages.
Sunday’s arrest is not his first involving firearms. In 2016, Soulja Boy was arrested at his Hollywood Hills residence after police reportedly found a weapon while he was on probation. He later pleaded no contest to a felony weapons possession charge and a misdemeanor, receiving five years’ probation and community service.
