‘Billie Eilish’ Rapper Arrested After Stopping Traffic for Video Shoot

Armani White, 28, smiles in his booking photo after being arrested Sunday in London, Ky. Police say the “Billie Eilish” rapper stopped traffic on Interstate 75 while filming a video. He was charged with disorderly conduct and illegally stopping a vehicle on a highway, then released from the Laurel County Correctional Center. (Photo: Laurel County Correctional Center)

Armani White’s latest viral moment didn’t happen onstage — it happened in the middle of an interstate.

The 29-year-old Philadelphia rapper, best known for his 2022 breakout hit “Billie Eilish,” was arrested Sunday night in Laurel County, Kentucky, after police say he stopped traffic on Interstate 75 to film a video.

According to booking records and police reports, White — whose real name is Enoch Tolbert — was taken into custody by London Police officers and charged with second-degree disorderly conduct and stopping, standing, or parking on a limited-access highway, both misdemeanors. He was booked into the Laurel County Correctional Center and released shortly after.

The incident occurred less than 24 hours after White performed as a supporting act on T-Pain’s “TP20: Celebrating 20 Years of T-Pain” tour in Newport, Ky. Witnesses told police that multiple vehicles had stopped on the highway and that a man — later identified as White — was seen dancing and jumping on a concrete median while a crew filmed.

Police said the spectacle caused several motorists to call 911, prompting officers to respond to prevent potential accidents. “The situation presented a clear traffic hazard,” one report noted, describing the impromptu shoot as “reckless and unsafe.”

White’s booking photo, released by the Laurel County Correctional Center, went viral overnight. Without his signature beaded braids — reportedly removed at officers’ request — the rapper flashes a broad smile, looking more amused than concerned.

While his representatives have yet to issue a formal statement, fans quickly connected the arrest to White’s penchant for spectacle. His platinum single “Billie Eilish” turned a playful boast into a viral moment that earned him national attention, and his blend of humor and energy has long blurred the line between charisma and chaos.

Flamingos Great Terry Johnson, Who Bridged Doo-Wop and Motown, Dead at 86

Terry Johnson, tenor, guitarist, and arranger for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame vocal group The Flamingos, performs in an undated photo. Johnson, who co-arranged and sang on the group’s 1959 classic “I Only Have Eyes for You” and later worked as a Motown producer, died this week at 86. (Courtesy photo)

Terry Johnson, the silky-voiced tenor, guitarist, and arranger who helped define doo-wop’s celestial sound with The Flamingos’ “I Only Have Eyes for You,” has died. He was 86.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame confirmed Johnson’s passing Friday, calling him “one of the architects of sophisticated vocal harmony” and a guiding force behind one of the genre’s most influential groups. Johnson, who joined The Flamingos in 1958, arranged and co-sang on “I Only Have Eyes for You,” the 1959 ballad whose shimmering harmonies and echoing “shoo-bop shoo-bops” remain one of pop’s most enduring sonic signatures.

(1/3) In Memoriam: Doo-wop legends the Flamingos, including 2001 Inductee Terry Johnson, took listeners higher with their sublime harmonies and impeccable arrangements. With Johnson joining as tenor/lead vocalist, guitarist, and arranger in 1958, The Flamingos... pic.twitter.com/UgF15LWdV6

— Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (@rockhall) October 10, 2025

“Crafted a sophisticated sound like no other vocal group,” the Rock Hall said in its remembrance on X (formerly Twitter). “Their rendition of ‘I Only Have Eyes for You’ remains an irresistible expression of yearning.”

 

In a 2001 Rock Hall ceremony speech inducting The Flamingos, Johnson described the group’s magic as “extraordinary harmonies combined with a love of the classics and a touch of dynamic stage presence.” Their album Flamingo Serenade, he told the crowd, was “without a doubt a masterpiece” — a testament that still rings true decades later.

After The Flamingos’ peak, Johnson carried his musical touch to Motown Records. Smokey Robinson recruited him as a songwriter and producer in the 1960s, where he contributed to sessions for The Temptations, The Four Tops and The Supremes. His behind-the-scenes work helped shape the seamless, orchestral polish that came to define Motown’s golden era.

Fellow performer Kathy Young shared a tribute Friday, writing, “I am so very sad upon hearing of the passing of Terry Johnson. He and I worked together so many times and always had fun. My deepest sympathies and prayers to Theresa, his family and The Flamingos. RIP Terry.”

The Flamingos, formed in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood in the early 1950s, embodied the elegance of the doo-wop era — their tuxedoed performances and symphonic vocals bridging gospel discipline with pop sensuality. Johnson’s tenure brought a new level of polish and musical sophistication, blending jazz chords, romantic lyricism, and lush production that influenced generations of R&B and soul artists.

“Their innovative recordings made a major contribution to our industry,” Johnson said during his Hall of Fame induction. “They rightfully deserve to be enshrined.”

Drake Loses Defamation Suit Against Universal Over 'Not Like Us,' Judge Says Rap Battle Was Hyperbole

A federal judge in New York dismissed Drake’s defamation suit over Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us,” ruling that the song’s lyrics were protected artistic expression — a decision that reaffirmed rap’s long tradition of rivalry as a form of free speech.

Drake’s bid to turn a diss record into a defamation case just hit a wall. A federal judge in Manhattan has thrown out his lawsuit over Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” ruling that the song’s explosive accusations— however cutting — are protected opinion, not factual claims.

The 38-page opinion, issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas, brings one of hip-hop’s strangest courtroom dramas to an end. “Because the Court concludes that the allegedly defamatory statements in ‘Not Like Us’ are nonactionable opinion, the motion to dismiss is granted,” Vargas wrote. She called the song part of “perhaps the most infamous rap battle in the genre’s history — the vitriolic war of words that erupted between superstar recording artists Aubrey Drake Graham and Kendrick Lamar Duckworth in the spring of 2024.”

Drake, whose suit named Universal Music Group, argued that the label helped spread false claims that he preyed on underage girls, endangering his safety and reputation. But the court said no reasonable listener would take such statements literally. “A reasonable person,” Judge Vargas wrote, “is not under the impression that a diss track is the product of a thoughtful or disinterested investigation conveying fact-checked, verifiable content.”

That reasoning — rooted in decades of First Amendment case law — may sound clinical, but its impact is cultural. Vargas compared modern diss tracks to the “freewheeling, anything-goes” nature of YouTube and X, where hyperbole is part of the art. In that setting, she said, Kendrick’s most incendiary bar — “Say Drake, I hear you like ’em young” — cannot be read as an assertion of fact. “In the context of this rap diss battle,” she wrote, “no reasonable person would listen to ‘Not Like Us’ and assume that Lamar uniquely had access to credible, provable facts that revealed Drake to be a pedophile.”

The judge also cited Drake’s own provocations in earlier tracks, noting that “Not Like Us” was a lyrical counterpunch to his “Taylor Made Freestyle,” where he baited Lamar with insinuations and personal digs. The back-and-forth, she said, was the modern embodiment of battle rap’s “epithets, fiery rhetoric, and hyperbole” — a context that transforms insult into performance.

Vargas rejected Drake’s remaining claims under New York’s consumer-protection statute and harassment laws, calling them “meritless extensions” of the same defamation theory. The cover art and video, she found, operated within the same expressive sphere. “They are not literal; they are commentary.”

With that, a judge effectively codified what hip-hop fans have known for decades: the diss is a weapon of art, not evidence. For Kendrick Lamar, it’s another win in a year already marked by triumph — “Not Like Us” spent multiple weeks at No. 1 and became a cultural anthem of competitive purity. For Drake, it’s another loss in a rivalry that’s blurred the line between ego and legacy.

Beyond the headlines, though, the decision may stand as a landmark. By writing that a diss track “cannot reasonably be understood as stating actual facts,” a federal court has, perhaps for the first time, explicitly framed battle rap as protected speech.