U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky’s Europe tour in jeopardy after Sweden arrest

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – U.S. rapper A$AP Rocky should be detained in Sweden for at least two more weeks to be investigated over serious assault charges, the national prosecutor said on Thursday, throwing into jeopardy the artist’s European tour.

The 30-year-old performer, producer and model, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, was taken into custody on Wednesday, along with two members of his entourage and his bodyguard, in connection with a fight on Sunday.

“The reason why they are being detained is that there is danger of them fleeing (the country) and there is a risk that they could damage the investigation if they are released,” Swedish prosecutor Fredrik Karlsson said.

The artist, best known for his 2011 debut album “Live.Long.A$AP”, was arrested hours after performing at a hip hop festival in Sweden’s capital on Tuesday night.

His detention forced the cancellation of performances scheduled for Norway on Wednesday and Poland on Thursday.

He has shows planned across a dozen cities – also including London and Moscow – over the next two weeks as part of the Europe tour, with his latest album, “Testing”, having debuted last year as No. 4 on the Billboard 200 charts.

The Swedish lawyer representing A$AP Rocky repeated that the artist was innocent and denied wrongdoing, and said he would appeal against the arrest at the court hearing scheduled for Friday.

“I am confident that we can help him in a good way,” lawyer Henrik Olsson Lilja told Reuters.

Before his arrest, A$AP Rocky, who also goes by the pseudonym Lord Flacko, uploaded two videos of the altercation with the two men on Instagram and stated his innocence.

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)