Rapper Flava Flav was pulled over on the Meadowbrook Parkway in Long Island on Thursday as he was rushing to his mother's funeral, the Associated Press reported.
State police say Flava Flav, whose real name is William Drayton, was pulled over for going 79 mph in a 55 mph zone, the AP reported. He was arrested for having 16 suspensions on his license and a small amount of marijuana in the black Hyundai he was driving, according to NBC News.
The rap and reality star was released shortly after being arrested and given an appearance ticket so that he could make it to his mother's funeral, the AP reported. He is due in court on Jan. 28.
Flava Flav was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, and now lives in Las Vegas, according to the New York Daily News. His mother, Anna Dayton, passed on New Years Eve, according to the rapper's tweets.
In an interview with People magazine, Flav credited his mother for supporting him throughout his career and for pushing him into the music business, the Daily News reported.
"One thing she always say was do your do's," Flav said in the interview. "When you go out, you know your do's and you know your don'ts. So do your do's and leave the don'ts alone and you will be alright."
He made his public debut as a member of the rap group Public Enemy who were inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, the AP reported.
Flav is known for the large clocks he wears around his neck, a trademark of his which was incorporated into his own reality show "Flavor of Love" where he took away contestants clocks when eliminating them from the show, according to NBC.
After leaving Public Enemy, he released a couple of solo tracks and began to appear on reality shows like "The Surreal Life," where he met former girlfriend Brigitte Nielsen, which was a love story so strange it led to their own show called "Strange Love," NBC reported.
In 1996, the rapper was arrested while he was riding his bike in the South Bronx and was stopped by the police who found two pounds of marijuana on his person, NBC reported.
