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Wayna Arrested At Houston Airport For Carrying Billy Club

Posted Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:42pm PDT by Billy Johnson, Jr. in Hip-Hop Media Training

Grammy nominated R&B singer Wayna was arrested Wednesday at Bush IAH Houston airport when security found a collapsible Billy Club in her carry on luggage.

The singer uses the baton as a prop during the performance of her song "Billy Club" that discusses police brutality.

Wayna received a third degree felony weapons charge for possession of a prohibited weapon at an airport, confirmed Donna Hawkins, spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's office.

"A third degree felony has a range of punishment of 2-10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine," Hawkins said via email.

Wayna was confined at the Harris County Jail.

Wayna spent 12 hours in jail before being released on $5,000 bail according to statement issued by her spokesperson. She is awaiting a court date.

The statement maintains that Wayna had no intention of using the baton as a weapon, but had wrapped a brief tour in Texas including performing at the popular South by South West (SXSW) music festival. The baton is usually packed in her checked luggage.

Her song "Billy Club" is a metaphor produced to sound like a sad love song about a relationship with a character named "Billy." Wayna sings about how "Billy" is meant to be used to protect and serve citizens but is often misused. "I'm not supposed to fear you but you're the friendly kind," she sings.

Wayna has received critical acclaim for her neo soul album Higher Ground. Her song "Lovin' You (Music)," a hip hop remake of the Minnie Ripperton classic, was nominated for the Best Urban/Alternative Performance Grammy.at this year's awards.

The Ethiopian-born singer who was raised in the D.C.-area also features other socio-political messages on her album. The song "My Love" is about domestic abuse. It debuted at No. 2 and No. 18 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles and Hot Singles Sales chart, respectively. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland and worked as a writer in the White House during the Clinton administration.

240 Comments

1. Kyrisha W -
does anyone even know who she is? lol

2. Yahoo! Music User -
nice............................................................................................................................................................................

3. Yahoo! Music User -
Jezzzz... With all this hype about terrists at airports, who would be dumb enough to bring a billy club to an airport????

4. Matthew -
Hey, um... who the hell is Wayna?

5. Yahoo! Music User -
ha! good question, this is my first time hearing about this "singer" as well

6. Yahoo! Music User -
WTH is WAYNA??? Who cares!

7. MITCH -
HOW RIDICULOUS!!!

8. Play Harder -
no but thats extremely stupid that she'd get arrested for a prop.

9. Manuel -
THAT'S WHY SHE LIVE SIN AMERICA!!! FREEDOM OF SPEECH. WHAT THE HECK, COMEDIANS GETS AWAY WITH WORSE JOKES. GIVE HER A BREAK, SHE IS AN ARTIST...

10. Raffinee -
You got that right! I don't have a clue who she is. lmao

11. AlexusS -
she canot sing at all she need to stop what is doing lil roud can sing better than her

12. nhan v -
no lol

13. Baby -
Nope not me...totally clueless....

14. sanssensibility -
So much for common sense. Funny, she doesn't look like a terrorist to me.

15. Yahoo! Music User -
grrr ... "billy clubs" who even has those anymore?

16. amberr -
no lol

17. PistonLaker24 -
#2 and never heard of her in my life! lol

18. bittersweet16 -
is this girl ethiopian?

19. Louis -
who is she? and who cares! Just the big record companies spending millions of PR for their latest trash, sound a like, look alike investment.

20. Steve -
first
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