Legendary Hip Hop DJ Funkmaster Flex has reportedly been arrested in New York after a woman told police how Flex pushed her, tried to break her phone … and then sent her threatening messages. Police responded to an emergency call regarding alleged domestic violence from a 40-year-old woman at her home in Westchester (NY). When they arrived the DJ had apparently fled the scene, but the woman was adamant that a crime had been committed.
Police arrested Funkmaster Flex, whose real name is Aston Taylor Jnr in his car a short distance from the scene. He now faces harassment and criminal mischief charges. Taylor posted $500 bail and was released. He is due back in court on Friday, February 18.
These new allegations follow on from the 2003 assault charges against Flex after he allegedly choked and punched a female DJ from a rival radio station, although in this case he pleaded guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court to a lesser charge of harassment. He was also issued an order of protection to stay away from Stephanie Saunders, 29, who is known as Big Steph Lova and works for WWPR-FM (105.1). Taylor, a DJ for WQHT-FM (97.1) and America’s No.1 Hip Hop DJ for over a decade, was accused of confronting Saunders outside his Greenwich Village radio station. He was reportedly upset over allegations, made during an on-air interview that Saunders conducted, that he accepted bribes to play certain songs. Murray Richman, Taylor’s lawyer, acknowledged that the two disc jockeys had a “shouting match,” but said his client “never touched” Saunders.
Controversy is never far away from Flex as he hit the news late last year, again for the wrong reasons, after publicly slating the late rap icon Tupac Shakur over supposed negativity toward New York based artists.
However on his show he publicly defended himself-
“I know everyone saw a short clip of me saying some things about Tupac in a nightclub,” Flex said on his Hot 97 radio show. “I know some of his fans are upset because they feel he’s not here to defend himself. Let me be the first one to say not only do I respect his music, I respect what he put down. I respect the records he made, the records he sold, his positive energy in the beginning, the great records he made and I know how passionate he was about his music. That’s not where any of this came from and yeah it came out at the wrong time and I know people only saw that little piece so you don’t know what exactly was going on that night. I want to keep it so one hundred today, I feel a certain way. It’s just how I feel — Yes, he was very talented and yes he made great records, and I also think he brought a negative energy into the game with the beefing — and the threats of what was going on and yes, it happened to be most of the artists were from New York City.”
