Rapper Nelly arrested for alleged rape on his tour bus

The rapper and hip-hop music star Nelly has been arrested for allegedly raping a woman, according to reports.

Nelly, 42, whose real name is Cornell Haynes is currently on tour with the country group, Florida Georgia Line.

The incident is thought to have taken place onboard the singer's tour bus in the early hours of Saturday morning (7 October) in Washington state.

He was later arrested at around 7am on second degree rape charges.

Nelly was due to perform this evening to a crowd in Ridgefield, Washington, but is understood to still be in police custody.

Speaking to TMZ, Nelly's lawyer said: "Nelly is the victim of a completely fabricated allegation. Our initial investigation, clearly establishes the allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness.

"I am confident, once the scurrilous accusation is thoroughly investigated, there will be no charges. Nelly is prepared to pursue all all legal avenues to redress any damage caused by this clearly false allegation."

It isn't the singer's first brush up with the law, he was arrested in Tennessee in 2015 on drug charges and in 2012 police at the Texas state border found marijuana, heroin and a loaded gun on his tour bus.

Nelly became famous world-wide with the release of his album Country Grammar in 2000 which sold more than 8.4m copies and reached number one in the Billboard charts.