PHILADELPHIA — Philly-raised rapper Armani White is pushing back on the media coverage of his arrest earlier this month.

White, 29, born Enoch Armani Tolbert, was arrested for disorderly conduct on Oct. 12 after police found the artist and members of his tour bus filming a music video on I-75 in Newport, Kentucky.

TMZ covered the arrest, releasing Tolbert’s mug shot and police bodycam footage of the arrest, as well as remarking on the nature of his hair in the mug shot.

“My father didn’t raise me to be a criminal. My grandfather didn’t raise me to be a criminal. The only reason why I smiled in that mug shot is because I refuse to let anybody paint a picture of me as a criminal on TV, on the internet, anywhere,” White said to a packed crowd in Birmingham, Alabama, last weekend.

Tolbert was in Kentucky as part of a nationwide tour alongside Grammy-award-winning singer T-Pain when his tour bus stopped on the interstate to film a music video. White did not respond to a request for comment.

According to a police citation, the police were called to the highway after reports of people running on the road. When they arrived, police reportedly found White dancing on the concrete median of the interstate.

White grew to international fame in 2022 after his bass-bumping, Neptunes-sampled track “BILLIE EILISH” birthed a viral TikTok challenge reaching millions. White later joined the track’s namesake, Billie Eilish, the 23-year-old Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer, to perform the song together in 2023.

Rapping since the 2010s, White grew an underground following before joining the lineup of Jay-Z’s Made In America festival in 2018, which he had been attending as a fan before hitting the stage. Earlier this year, White performed his first NFL halftime show during the NFC championship, with the Philadelphia Eagles against the Washington Commanders.

White released his debut album, "Keep In Touch," in 2019, followed by the EP, "Things We Lost in the Fire," referring to a house fire in which White lost family members at a young age.

This week, he released a music video for the single, “MOUNT PLEASANT.,” a teaser for what’s to come on the release of his next album on Oct. 31.

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