Boosie Badazz Gets $85,000 Bond After Felony Assault Charge in Houston Nightclub Case

Boosie Badazz addresses his felony aggravated assault charge in a video posted to social media after a Harris County judge set an $85,000 walk-through bond in Houston. The Baton Rouge rapper denied wrongdoing after authorities alleged he struck a nightclub security guard with a broken glass hookah base during a Memorial Day weekend incident. (Credit: @boosieig2024/Instagram)

Boosie Badazz’s latest legal fight began inside a Houston nightclub at closing time, when a dispute over a closed restroom allegedly turned into a felony assault case involving a broken glass hookah base and a security guard left bleeding from the head.

The Baton Rouge rapper, whose legal name is Torrence Ivy Hatch Jr., is facing a felony aggravated assault charge in Harris County after authorities said he struck a security guard at a downtown Houston nightclub during Memorial Day weekend.

The alleged incident happened May 24 as security was clearing the club at closing time. According to court records cited by Houston police, security guard Edward Iglehart became involved in a dispute with a female patron who wanted to use the restroom after the club had closed.

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Police said the woman struck Iglehart in the face after he refused to let her into the restroom. TMZ reported that club owners and promoters told police the woman was Boosie’s niece. Boosie’s attorney has described her more generally as a female relative.

As Iglehart escorted the woman out of the club, she dropped some of her belongings, according to court records. Iglehart told police he bent down to pick them up and suddenly felt an object hit the top of his head.

Iglehart said he noticed blood running down his face and turned around to see Boosie holding a broken glass hookah base, according to the court documents. Investigators said another security guard reported hearing glass break, seeing Iglehart bleeding from the head and seeing Boosie holding the broken hookah base while yelling at the injured guard.

Iglehart was taken to St. Joseph Hospital, where he received eight staples for the wound, according to court records.

Boosie appeared in Harris County court Monday morning, where a judge set an $85,000 walk-through bond. His attorney described the arrangement as a bond process that would allow the rapper to avoid being taken back into custody. Conditions reported by Houston media included staying away from the venue and having no contact with the alleged victim.

After the hearing, Boosie addressed the case in a video posted to social media, denying wrongdoing and calling the charge “basically a money grab.”

“It’s what you go through as an entertainer,” Boosie said in the video. “The facts of the case will come out. I’m alright though. Life be lifing, bro.”

His attorney, Carl A. Moore, told TMZ that Boosie was trying to defend a female relative who was being escorted from the club and said the defense was seeking surveillance video from the venue.

“We plan to vigorously investigate and defend Mr. Hatch against these allegations,” Moore told TMZ, adding that he wanted people to reserve judgment while the case plays out in court.

The new charge comes less than five months after Boosie resolved a federal firearm case in California without additional prison time. In January, a federal judge in San Diego sentenced him to three years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a $50,000 fine after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Boosie also said in his social media video that he contacted his supervision officer about the new charge.

The Houston case adds another legal complication for one of Southern rap’s most outspoken veterans. Boosie has built a career on raw, direct street narratives, but his name has often moved through courtrooms as much as clubs and stages. This time, the question is not only what happened inside the nightclub, but whether surveillance video, witness accounts and court filings will support the version of events that made the case a felony.

Boosie’s next court date is expected in September.

Peabo Bryson, Singer of 'Beauty and the Beast' and R&B Classics, Suffers Stroke

Peabo Bryson appears in an undated photo posted to his official Facebook page. Bryson, 75, has suffered a stroke and is under medical care, according to a statement from his representative. (Credit: Peabo Bryson/Facebook)

Peabo Bryson’s voice has lived in slow dances, quiet-storm dedications, wedding receptions and Disney memories shared across generations. Smooth, controlled and unmistakably rooted in R&B, it carried romance with a kind of dignity that never needed to shout.

That made Sunday’s news hit hard.

Bryson, 75, the two-time Grammy-winning singer known for “Beauty and the Beast,” “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)” and decades of romantic R&B ballads, has suffered a stroke and is under medical care, according to a statement from his representative.

No additional details about Bryson’s condition have been publicly released. His family asked for privacy as he receives treatment. The statement said the ‘thoughts, prayers and love’ of friends and fans are welcomed.

The support began moving through R&B circles quickly. Stephanie Mills, one of Bryson’s contemporaries and a defining voice of her own generation, posted a message of support for him on social media.

“Right now for my friend @peabobryson2,” Mills wrote. “I truly love you. I am here for your family while you recover. ABUNDANT #POWER AND #STRENGTH.”

For casual listeners, Bryson may be most widely known as one of the voices behind two of the most recognizable movie duets of the early 1990s. He won Grammys for “Beauty and the Beast,” performed with Celine Dion, and “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme),” performed with Regina Belle. Both songs won best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal.

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Those records made him part of childhood for millions. But R&B audiences knew Bryson long before animated films carried his voice into the pop mainstream.

Born Robert L. Bryson in Greenville, South Carolina, he came through the Southern music circuit before becoming one of contemporary R&B’s premier male vocalists. His catalog includes “Feel the Fire,” “I’m So Into You,” “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” “Can You Stop the Rain” and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” his duet with Roberta Flack.

Those records belonged to a tradition that treated romantic ballads as serious craft. Bryson’s best work had polish, but the polish never flattened the feeling. He could make longing sound composed without making it cold, and tenderness sound powerful without turning it theatrical.

That restraint became part of his signature. It let him move from soul radio to adult contemporary and into Disney’s early 1990s run without sounding like a visitor in any room. He brought the grammar of R&B with him — the patience, the breath, the glide, the quiet command.

Two Eras of 1970s R&B Mourn as The Commodores’ Ronald LaPread and The Sylvers’ Foster Sylvers Die

Foster Sylvers, left, and Ronald LaPread are shown in a composite illustration honoring two figures from 1970s R&B and soul. Sylvers, a child star with the Sylvers, died at 64, and LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, died at 75. 

Two R&B bloodlines that helped define the sound of the 1970s were being mourned this weekend, as the deaths of Ronald LaPread of the Commodores and Foster Sylvers of the Sylvers were reported by multiple outlets.

LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, died at 75 after helping anchor one of Motown’s most durable funk and soul machines. Foster Sylvers, the gifted child star whose voice and musicianship helped carry the Sylvers from family act to disco-era hitmakers, died at 64 after a cancer battle.

The losses hit different corners of the same musical universe — one rooted in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Motown’s polished rise through the 1970s; the other in the bright, youthful harmonies of a Los Angeles family group that gave R&B and pop one of the era’s most infectious records.

Soraya LaPread announces the death of her father, Ronald LaPread, a founding member and former bassist for the Commodores, in an Instagram Story. LaPread, whose bass helped anchor the group’s classic funk and soul sound, died at 75. (Credit: Soraya LaPread/Instagram)

LaPread’s daughter, music producer Soraya LaPread, announced his death on social media Saturday. TMZ reported that the New Zealand Herald said LaPread died after a sudden medical event in Auckland, New Zealand, where he had lived for decades.

LaPread was part of the original Commodores lineup with Lionel Richie, Walter “Clyde” Orange, William “WAK” King, Milan Williams and Thomas McClary. The group formed in 1968 at Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University, and became one of Motown’s defining acts of the 1970s and early 1980s, moving easily between hard funk, lush ballads and crossover soul.

As the group’s bassist, LaPread helped give shape to records that became part of the American songbook, including “Brick House,” “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady.” His role was not always the one that drew the spotlight, but it was central to the Commodores’ identity: the pocket, the weight, the movement underneath the melodies that made the band both radio-ready and deeply funky.

The Recording Academy lists the Commodores with one Grammy win and nine nominations. Their lone Grammy win came for “Nightshift,” the 1985 tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson that earned best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal. By then, the group had already lived through Richie’s departure and the turbulence that followed, but the record showed how much musical force remained in the Commodores name.

LaPread’s death also came days after the Commodores withdrew from the Freedom 250 concert series tied to the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., amid backlash over the event’s political connections. That controversy may have placed the group back in the headlines, but LaPread’s legacy rests much deeper — in the grooves that made the Commodores a bridge between Southern musicianship, Motown discipline and the mass appeal of late-20th-century Black popular music.

Hours after LaPread’s death was reported, TMZ reported that Foster Sylvers had died in hospice care. Reports differed on the specific cancer diagnosis, but Leon Sylvers III confirmed to multiple outlets that his brother died after a cancer battle.

Foster Sylvers entered the music world young, and with rare command. His 1973 solo single “Misdemeanor,” written by Leon, became a breakout R&B hit and later took on a second life through hip-hop sampling, including its use on the D.O.C.’s “It’s Funky Enough.” That afterlife matters: Foster’s work did not simply sit in the ’70s. It echoed forward into the sample-based language that helped build hip-hop’s golden age.

With the Sylvers, Foster became part of one of the decade’s most recognizable family groups, a sibling act often remembered alongside the broader wave of Black family bands that included the Jackson 5 and the Five Stairsteps. The Sylvers’ biggest pop moment came with “Boogie Fever,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. The record was bright, polished and impossible to shake, but beneath its pop sheen was the architecture of a serious family band — harmonies, rhythm, choreography and production moving as one.

The Sylvers also scored with records such as “Fool’s Paradise” and “Hot Line,” while Foster built a reputation beyond the family name as a bassist, singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He worked in the same lineage as his brother Leon, whose production and songwriting later helped shape the sound of SOLAR Records and acts including Shalamar and Dynasty.

The deaths of LaPread and Foster Sylvers are not connected beyond timing, but together they mark the passing of two musicians whose work lived inside the machinery of classic Black music rather than outside it. LaPread helped drive a band that could make funk muscular and ballads feel monumental. Foster Sylvers helped bring youthful electricity to a family sound that crossed from soul into disco and later found its fingerprints in hip-hop.

They came from different bands, different regions and different roles. But both belonged to a generation of musicians who built songs strong enough to outlive the charts, the trends and even the eras that first made them famous.