Rod Wave is an artist known for his unique style where he blends singing and rapping,
and blew up on Tik Tok and YouTube with tracks like Heart on Ice.
But aside from his emotional lyrics,
Rod Wave still comes from the streets and ain’t someone you want to mess with.
Now he’s facing a felony charge after allegedly strangling someone in Florida.
Here’s what happened.
Around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday May 1st,
Rod Wave was arrested by the St. Petersburg Police Department in Florida
and booked into jail early Monday morning.
According to documents obtained by the Neighborhood Talk,
he was arrested over an incident with an unnamed individual
and charged with battery by strangulation.
Battery by strangulation is a third degree felony,
and Rod could face up to five years in prison if he’s convicted.
The charge can also carry a sentence of five years of probation and a $5,000 fine.
As of right now, he’s still in custody and awaiting trial with no bond set.
Before he was arrested, he posted a video on Instagram showing flashing cop lights
while he shook his head and said “This is why I don’t even come here,”
referring to his hometown of St. Petersburg.
A day before he got booked into jail, Rod posted a freestyle over Future’s track
Wait For U and announced that his newest album is dropping on June 3rd.
No one knows if the arrest will delay the album at all,
but his fans were surprised just to hear that he was dropping new music.
Back in January, Rod Wave told his fans he was getting ready to retire.
I'm only here for a little longer,
and when I say that I mean like as in Rod Wave.
You know?
I'm only here for a little minute man
But I say I wont but I done gave y’all straight dope,
I gave y'all straight crack man.
Ain't nobody's ****** with me with that pan
I done gave y'all straight dope.
This **** not really me
like I'm not no people person
I'm not no center of attention ass *****
I hate attention man
Once, you know, I can’t get on the internet without seeing my face or my name.
The retirement video came out just a month after he scared his fans with the track Nirvana.
The track dropped on December 11th and featured bars that seemed to reference suicide.
On the track, he rapped, “If you’re hearing this it’s too late
I’ve been writin this since Tuesday,
today Friday that mean tomorrow’s doomsday
Tried to fight the pain but it ate me alive
Sad to say I lost a battle, against my mind
You should be happy for me homie no more sufferin’
We all got a day I guess we’ll see each other then
I hope that heaven’s real and one day we can reunite
And don’t be crying for me I lived a wonderful life.”
Right after he posted the song, Rod deactivated all of his social media accounts,
which led his fans to believe that the song was meant to be his suicide note.
Not only were the lyrics about death,
but the title of the track could be a reference to the band Nirvana,
whose lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life.
Social media blew up with people posting about their concern for Rod Waves life.
Later that day, he hopped on Instagram and wrote “I’m super goood…
Happy asf working on my new album…
love y’all fasho doe dat was definitely a suicide prevention song.”
After he came back online to tell his fans he was ok,
rumors started circulating that the whole thing was a publicity stunt.
They said Rod Wave knew posting a track with lyrics like that,
then deleting his social media accounts right afterward would make everyone worry about him.
Later that day, Rod hopped on Instagram Live and said
“Fuck n***as hating,
talking ‘bout I’m looking for attention, *****.
Who the **** needs attention?
You forgot who the **** I was?
I don’t need new attention.
Did you not see my tour?
Did you not see my album sales? I don’t need no extra attention.
I had already deleted my Insta and my Twitter and all that ****
because of the extra attention bro.
I don’t need no extra attention from nobody *****, I’m good.”
Rod Wave don’t pretend to be the hardest rapper in the game,
but he grew up in St. Petersburg surrounded by street activities his whole life.
His dad was a hustler and dope boy who held down their family and household.
His parents always bought him nice stuff, but their entire life was financed by crime.
When his dad got hit with a six-year sentence on drug charges,
Rod hopped off the porch at 14
and started robbing people with some dudes from his neighborhood.
He told DJ Smallz
that he still wanted all of the nice clothes and stuff he was used to having,
but ain’t want to burden his mom with the responsibility.
Then, he linked up with some kids from his hood
who taught him how to break into cars and houses.
He said he’d leave school in the middle of the day,
hit a lick, then go back and get on the bus
with a backpack full of stolen cash and items.
Not before long, Rod started seeing his friends face the consequences.
His homies were getting locked up and sent to prison,
and sometimes shot or beat up by people they robbed.
Even though he saw his friends and dad get locked up for what they did in the streets,
the only thing that made him change up the way he moved was getting into trouble himself.
His first charge came in the ninth grade after a home invasion went south.
Rod and his homies tried to rob a house, but someone was home.
The dude ended up surprising them and tried to take Rod’s gun from him.
The police came and booked him on some type of burglary charge.
Because he was a juvenile at the time,
Rod don’t even know what the actual charge was.
He told DJ Smallz
that someone in the system kept saying he could get a life sentence
since he brought a gun into someone’s home - but eventually the charge was dropped.
Back in May 2021,
Rod Wave got exposed for rapping about a gun charge
that involved a pellet gun instead of a real burner.
On the track Heart on Ice, he rapped
“While in the cell with Lil’ Wakeem, after I slapped him I had told him
‘I don’t know how you get down with them clowns but I’m a soldier’
No one could understand, I had way too much aggression
That built over the years from my abandoned adolescence.”
He was rapping like he got locked up for carrying a weapon,
but a news story from 2017 surfaced showing that he was arrested at school
after a pellet gun was found in his backpack.
He kept his head down after this and graduated high school.
Around this same time, he started taking music seriously, and soon after,
he became one of the hottest new artists in the game.
Rod Wave started dropping music in 2016 and released a series of independent mixtapes.
Then in 2019 he dropped his PTSD mixtape which featured the track Heart on Ice.
This is the song that changed everything,
and by the time he dropped his debut album later that year -
he had enough momentum in the industry for it to reach number 10 on the Billboard 200.
In 2020 he dropped his second album, which debuted at number two on the Billboard 200.
Almost overnight, Rod Wave became a massive artist.
But he almost ain’t have time to enjoy the success.
In June 2020, he was involved in a car crash that nearly took his life.
He bought a Corvette C8 to celebrate the crazy year he had in 2019,
but the gift almost ended up killing him.
In June 2020 he posted a video on Instagram showing his whip
after he ran into a concrete barrier.
He captioned the post with “Hurt me to my heart the way our love ended.
Never know what you got til it’s gone.
It’s cool doe just gone get me badder ***** still here doe thank god.”
His fans were happy to see him safe, but just two months later he had another close call.
In October 2020, Rod was scheduled to perform at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
But when he walked out with his crew to start the show, the stage collapsed
and people started falling into the pit it made.
Rod stumbled and fell backwards,
but luckily he avoided any serious injuries.
The concert was canceled afterward, but the drama wasn’t over.
Rod Wave allegedly punched the concert promoter who put the show on.
According to rumors he blamed the promoter for the stage collapsing,
and was hit with a battery charge.
After this, Rod avoided controversy for a while and kept working on his career.
His third album dropped in March 2021
and became the number one streamed record on YouTube,
and his career just kept leveling up with every new release.
It looked like Rod had really turned everything around.
Rappers who come from the streets usually find it hard to leave that life behind them,
but Rod seemed like one of the few rappers who really did his best to stay away from trouble.
It’s not clear exactly what went down, or when the strangling actually happened.
According to Pitchfork, Rod Wave’s 2021 Dodge Durango was pulled over
“after a traffic infraction occurred,”
and then he was arrested on the strangulation charge that he had a warrant out for.
Rod ain’t a dude who just goes around attacking people,
but no one knows exactly what happened.
Just a couple of weeks ago, he was in the headlines for a much better reason.
One month after gas prices in America hit a new high of $4.17 a gallon,
Rod gave back to hundreds of people in his hometown of St. Petersburg
and donated $25,000 worth of free gas.
He posted an Instagram story and told his fans
“Gas high as ****.
Ay, St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Pete, 727 -
giving away free gas April 9 at the Sunoco on 34th right before you get on the bridge.”
Hundreds of people showed up to the station, where Rod’s mother helped pump gas
and organize people who showed up to help.
Everyone who came through was given $50 worth of free gas until the total bill reached $25K.
Rod obviously cares about his community,
and some of that desire to help comes from his past in the streets.
In an interview with DJ Smallz,
he talked about how much he regrets robbing innocent people back when he was a kid.
He said as he got older, he realized how hard people have to work just to live -
and he wishes he found a different way to support himself.
When he got caught breaking into houses, his dad sat him down
and told him how wrong it was to take from innocent people.
His pops moved dope to support the family,
but he told Rod that stealing is something crackheads do.
Rod Wave seems like someone who has tried to make the best of their career,
but that don’t mean there won’t be obstacles.
Hopefully this latest charge ain’t nothing too serious
and he can get back to making music.
More details will be coming soon, so tap in for updates.