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Yikes.
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Sep 03, 2020
He was someone whose career was on the upswing. When Richard "Ricky" Hawk AKA Silentó's hit song, "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)," reached the top three of the Billboard Hot 100 charts, it looked like he was on his way to a long and bright future in the entertainment industry. But on September 2, 2020, he was arrested in connection with alleged domestic violence incidents in Santa Ana and Los Angeles, and that wasn't his first recent arrest.
Who is Silentó, and what do we know about his arrest?
Born Richard Lamar Hawk in Stone Mountain, Georgia, the rapper who would become known as Silentó burst onto the scene when his 2015 single, "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)," reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and spawned one of the first-ever viral dance challenges. He made the song when he was just 17 years old in his basement, and within one week, it had more than 100,000 views on YouTube. Take a listen to the hit song above.
He performed the hit song on the BET Awards.
Once "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)" was released, Silentó seemingly became a celebrity overnight. He even got to perform the song on the BET Awards, where the kids from the hit show Black-ish danced along. Later that same year, he performed the song on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve Hosted by Ryan Seacrest. However, he wouldn't release his first album until 2018, and that album was called Fresh Outta High School. He subsequently released Fresh Outta High School 2 later in 2018, but neither album made any sort of impact.
The dances were based in Atlanta street dancing.
Silentó is from Stone Mountain, Georgia, and when "Whip/Nae Nae" was released, it was revealed that the track was actually talking about two separate dances from the streets of Atlanta: the dance troupe We Are Toonz invented the Nae Nae, and Famous to Most (who "spun off" from We Are Toonz) invented the Whip. He combined the two dances to make the hit song, and the dances subsequently became famous all over the world.
Though Silentó never duplicated the success of "Whip/Nae Nae," he appeared on other tracks by other artists.
Even though Silento was never able to duplicate the success of "Whip/Nae Nae," he made guest appearances on other tracks by other artists. He appeared on "Volcano" and "Juicy Fruit" by The Vamps, "Slide" by ELS, and "Emoji" by the Sicko Mobb.
Silentó was arrested twice two separate domestic violence offenses.
On Friday, August 28, 2020, Silento was arrested in Santa Ana, CA, after officers were called to the scene of a domestic disturbance. He was arrested and charged with "inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant," and was subsequently released. Then on September 3, 2020, he was arrested again in Valley Village, CA, after allegedly breaking into a stranger's house and wielding a hatchet while looking for his girlfriend. According to the witnesses on the scene, Silento left the homeowners, and their children — who were home at the time of the alleged incident — "shaken," but unharmed. He is currently sitting in jail on $105,000 bond.
Nude photos of the rapper were also reportedly leaked.
Reportedly, naked pictures of Silentó were also "leaked" today, and no, we will not be featuring the pictures here. But needless to say, between these two pieces of news, it took no time at all for social media to make Silentó a trending topic.
Looks like it's been a rough couple days for the rapper.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist and photographer whose work has been featured in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more.