Stephen A. Smith Calls Out Double Standard of Rapper Getting Detained at Grammys After Will Smith Committed ‘Flagrant Assault’ at Oscars

Richard Shotwell/AP

Stephen A. Smith believes there was a double standard at play when rapper Killer Mike was detained Sunday at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.

Shortly after winning his third Grammy of the day, Killer Mike — whose real name is Michael Render — was seen being escorted away in handcuffs. In the clip posted online, Render was surrounded by several officers as they made their way to a private area. One man can be heard asking, “Are you serious?” When Render looked in his direction and incredulously responded with “Yeah, I’m serious,” the man simply said, “What the fuck?”

At the time, little was known about the situation. Later on that night, TMZ obtained footage of an apparent altercation that occurred outside the Crypto.com Arena. According to the report, Render was accused of knocking down a security guard. The footage only showed the aftermath of the event.

When Smith got wind of this, he took exception to the fact that Render was taken into custody at the award show. What made the incident especially strange, Smith continued, was the fact that Will Smith was able to go back to his seat after slapping Chris Rock live at the Academy Awards. Smith even accepted an award shortly after.

Rock later declined to file charges against Smith

“How in the Hell does Killer Mike get taken from the Grammy’s in HANDCUFFS for an ‘alleged Crime’ but Will Smith gets to accept his speech AND party — with no arrest — after committing one on Nat’l TV???” Stephen A. said.

“To be clear, I am not advocating that Will should’ve gotten arrested. But that happened in LA, too. So if Will could be left alone, how come they couldn’t wait until AFTER the Grammys to deal with Killer Mike? Why ruin his evening over an alleged misdemeanor but leave Will alone over a flagrant assault??? What’s different?”

Police informed TMZ that Render was not arrested, but he was momentarily detained as police tried to figure out what happened.