Following the first of two sold-out concerts at the Smoothie King Center, Baton Rouge rapper NBA Youngboy took a late-night stroll on Canal and Bourbon streets and briefly ended up in the hands of New Orleans cops.
Videos shared widely on social media show NBA Youngboy — born Kentrell DeSean Gaulden — walking along a Canal Street sidewalk with a small entourage after Sunday night’s concert.
In another video, Youngboy and his eight-man entourage are shown walking by Caesars Casino at the foot of Canal.
In other clips, he turns onto St. Charles Avenue from Canal as fans shout his name. In another scene, four NOPD officers grasp him from the front, back, and both sides as they pull/push him, backwards, away from a scrum of screaming fans.
In a screen grab image from a social media video, rapper NBA Youngboy is seen walking along Canal Street in downtown New Orleans following his sold-out concert at the Smoothie King Center on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025.
Youngboy is also seen running between two officers, their arms locked with his, as they hustle him past the Krystal restaurant on Bourbon and around a vehicle barricade onto Canal Street.
It appeared from the videos that the star was being extracted from what police believed to be a potentially dangerous situation.
The NOPD released the following statement Monday:
“Last night, there was no criminal incident and no arrest involving NBA YoungBoy. After the artist briefly moved on foot near the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets, a crowd converged. The videos show NOPD officers quickly establishing a protective corridor and escorting him to a vehicle.
“He departed without further issue, and tonight’s show at the Smoothie King Center remains on schedule.”
Trouble on tour
Youngboy’s ongoing MASA Tour has generated drama and public safety concerns in multiple cities, resulting in some shows being canceled.
Following a Sept. 21 concert in Kansas City, a teenage attendee was charged with felony assault after he beat a 66-year-old usher insider the venue.
In a screen grab image from a social media video, rapper NBA Youngboy is seen walking near Caesars Casino in downtown New Orleans following his sold-out concert at the Smoothie King Center on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025.
The United Center in Chicago canceled a Sept. 24 NBA Youngboy concert, apparently over concerns about the potential for violence tied to an ongoing dispute between NBA Youngboy and Chicago rapper Lil Durk.
Durk is in jail awaiting trial on an alleged murder-for-hire plot. He is charged with plotting to murder rapper Quando Rondo, a rapper who is signed to Youngboy’s Never Broke Again record label.
Responding to the Chicago cancellation, NBA Youngboy’s mother, Sherhonda Gaulden, said on social media, “It wasn’t canceled to hurt y’all, it was canceled to protect y’all.”
An Oct. 6 show at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena was subsequently called off for what arena officials described as “unforeseen circumstances.”
In a screen grab image from a social media video, rapper NBA Youngboy is seen surrounded by New Orleans police officers in downtown New Orleans following his sold-out concert at the Smoothie King Center on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025.
NBA Youngboy performed as scheduled at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Oct. 15. Local officials presented the rapper with proclamations recognizing his “commitment to promoting peace and steering away from gun violence in his music,” according to a CBS News report.
But the next day, State Farm Arena officials announced that a second sold-out NBA Youngboy show scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 18, was canceled.
Most shows on the 45-date tour, which kicked off with two sold-out concerts at Dallas’ American Airlines Arena on Sept. 1-2, have gone smoothly.
Millions at stake
All face-value tickets for the two New Orleans concerts sold out. Attendance for Sunday’s show was reportedly 13,500.
Gross ticket sales for other stops on the MASA Tour have reportedly averaged $1.5 million a show.
The two New Orleans concerts stand to generate millions of dollars in revenue from ticket and merchandise sales, concessions and parking. Thus, NBA Youngboy, tour promoter Live Nation and the Smoothie King Center all have a financial incentive to make sure the concerts happen.
New Orleans police said 400 officers, including these parked in the 400 block of Poydras Street on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2025, would be deployed downtown and in the French Quarter during Baton Rouge rapper NBA Youngboy’s two sold-out concerts at the Smoothie King Center on Oct. 19-20.
Police officials announced this week that 400 officers would be deployed in the Central Business District and French Quarter during the two nights of concerts. That heavy police presence was apparent Sunday, with multiple police cruisers parked on Poydras Street and around the Smoothie King Center, blue lights flashing.
The Smoothie King Center banned all bags and purses — even the small, clear bags that are normally allowed for concerts and sporting events — for the NBA Youngboy concerts. Venues in other cities have instituted a similar policy.
After New Orleans, the MASA Tour — it stands for Make America Slime Again — is slated to continue in Birmingham, Alabama, on Wednesday. The tour then moves on to shows in North Carolina, Houston, a return visit to Dallas, Oklahoma City, San Diego, Las Vegas and Portland before concluding Nov. 12 in Seattle.
The tour represents NBA Youngboy’s hugely lucrative return to the stage following years of legal entanglements.
After pleading guilty to gun charges last year, he was sentenced to 23 months in prison. In May, he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.
With billions of views of YouTube and more than 100 singles that have charted on the Billboard 100, NBA Youngboy ranks among the most popular and successful rappers of his generation.
Monday, Oct. 20, the night of his second New Orleans show, is his 26th birthday.
At the conclusion of Sunday’s concert at the Smoothie King Center, Youngboy signed off with, “I’m gonna see y’all tomorrow. When I walk in this b— tomorrow, I’m gonna have way more energy for ya.”
