Rapper Silento has been charged with assault after allegedly attacking two strangers with a hatchet, according to prosecutors in Los Angeles. The 22-year-old, whose real name is Richard Lamar Hawk, is best known for the viral song Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae), which also spawned a social media dance craze.
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According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, he is alleged to have walked into a stranger's unlocked home and attacked two people before one of them disarmed him. He has been charged with two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon following the weekend incident and is being held on a $105,000 (£79,000) bail.
The alleged attack is said to have happened in the Valley Village neighbourhood of Los Angeles and Silento is set to appear in court on Friday. If convicted as charged, the rapper faces a possible maximum sentence of six years in state prison.
Silento made the song when he was 17 years old in his basement and had already had more than 100,000 streams on Soundcloud before Capitol Records approached and signed him in April 2015.
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Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) was a viral hit but despite its popularity, it was largely panned by critics and Silento fell quiet on the chart front afterwards. US magazine Complex summed up the general feeling about the song by labelling it "one of the most annoying things to ever exist".
