Lil Nas X’s father, Robert Stafford, has opened up about the emotional toll of his son’s recent arrest and public breakdown, sharing painful details of their reunion during a jail visit.
“I went to visit him in jail, and as soon as I walked through that door, I couldn’t do anything but cry,” Stafford told the Sunday Times in an interview published Friday. “To see my baby boy on the other side of that glass. We shed tears with each other for a minute.”
The 26-year-old rapper, born Montero Lamar Hill, was arrested in the early morning hours of August 21 in Los Angeles following a series of erratic public displays that were caught on video.
Stafford recalled comforting his son during their visit. “‘What you’re going through is normal. We all have breakdowns every now and then, but the difference is, yours played out in the public eye,’” he told him.
Despite his personal turmoil, Hill was reportedly concerned about how the incident impacted others. “When I went to visit he asked me to say, ‘tell everybody I’m sorry they saw me like that,’” Stafford added. “Even in that moment, he was apologizing to people for something he was going through.”
The situation unfolded when Hill was seen walking down Ventura Boulevard in only white underwear and cowboy boots, singing and dancing in the street. In one video captured by a bystander and obtained by TMZ, the Grammy winner told a fan he was headed to a party and even placed a traffic cone on his head.
In another video, Hill stripped completely naked and began singing Nicki Minaj’s verse from Kanye West’s 2010 song “Monster.” According to a public information officer, witnesses alerted the Los Angeles Police Department around 5:50 a.m. Officers arrived on the scene, at which point Hill allegedly “charged” at them as they attempted to intervene.
NBC News reported that during the encounter, Hill allegedly punched one officer twice in the face, resulting in his arrest for misdemeanor battery on a police officer.
Later that day, Hill was reportedly seen wandering shirtless around a Los Angeles hotel. According to The Post, he is now facing four felony charges, including resisting an executive officer and battery with injury on a police officer, related to the incident in the San Fernando Valley.