Report: Flavor Flav clocked in South Point fracas
Ahip hop icon was popped Tuesday night in Vegasville. Las Vegas resident, TV star and pop culture legend Flavor Flav was punched and kicked during an incident at about 11 p.m. Tuesday at South Point.
An eyewitness said Flav, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., entered the casino from the main valet entrance. Another guest followed him in, closely behind, and “hit him a couple of times, pretty good.”
The rap star fell to the floor and the man who threw the punches, identified in a TMZ report as Ugandi Howard, ran from the casino, also through the main entrance.
He didn’t make it too far. The hotel’s security team caught and handcuffed the man before he made it out of the valet area.
“The whole thing couldn’t have lasted more than four minutes,” said the source who saw the fracas.
Flav left the hotel in an ambulance, but is reportedly not seriously injured. Efforts to reach his legal counsel for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.
According to TMZ , Flav told security and arriving Metro Police officers that Howard struck him in the face and kicked him while he was on the ground, apparently after Howard accused Flav of disrespecting Howard’s mother. The witness said that whatever the dispute, it seemed to have started outside the hotel entrance and was carried onto the casino floor.
It is not yet clear if Howard’s mother was present at the time.
Flav reportedly explained to officers he hit the deck because he suffered a groin injury, not because of Howard’s punching. The report says
Flav was taken to a hospital but suffered only minor injuries. Howard was reportedly released after being cited.
South Point officials said in a statement that the hotel is cooperating in the ongoing investigation.
“We are working directly with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to provide them with all the necessary information and resources associated with the investigation,” read the statement, issued by hotel GM Ryan Growney. “South Point’s security team took immediate action, detained the second individual, and followed all necessary procedures to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone involved.”
Flav is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as amemberof Public Enemy. He regularly frequents South Point’s bowling lanes, movie theaters and craps tables, typically wearing his signature shades, ball cap and oversized clock necklace.
Flav also favors downtown Las Vegas hotel-casinos and venues, especially the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, The D Las Vegas and the Plaza, where he has been a guest at Oscar Goodman’s dinner series talks at Oscar’s Beef, Booze & Broads restaurant.
Making a spectacle
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman brought her colleagues to their knees on Wednesday at the 86th U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington. Goodman was walking with a phalanx of mayors at the Capital Hilton Hotel when she noticed she had blurred vision.
“Wait! Stop!” she called out. “I’ve lost one of the lenses in my glasses!”
With that, about 100 mayors from across the country knelt down to search for the missing eyepiece. The winner of that search: Mayor Ashton Hayward of Pensacola, Fla.
Rock out
While the mayor tended to her vision problems, my hearing’s a little muddled this week. I have “The World’s Greatest Rock Show” finale on Sunday to thank for that. The show lasted 10 months at Stratosphere Showroom, superbly talented but undercut by its heavy early losses.
The show lopped its Bruce Springsteen number and the comic interloper who played Ozzy Osbourne, but ticket sales were never strong enough to work in a room that is now home to one show, the hot-selling “MJ Live” Michael Jackson tribute production.
“Rock Show” was a partnership between Dick Feeney (who also produces “The Rat Pack is Back” at The Copa Room at Tuscany Suites) and Red Mercury Entertainment. The show eventually did solid numbers — after it was announced in December that it was closing.
Meantime, in this rock revolution, “Tenors of Rock” at Harrah’s has been given a lifeline by Caesars Entertainment and Las Vegas production company UD Factory, and “Raiding the Rock Vault” continues to hit the mark at Vinyl at Hard Rock Hotel. In the end, three classic-rock shows in Vegasville was indeed, at least, one too many.
Who Was Where
Zach Werenski and PierreLuc Dubois of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Monday at the 7 p.m. performance of Mat Franco’s Magic Reinvented show at his eponymous theater at The Linq Hotel.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal. com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @Johnnykats1 on Instagram.