NEW ORLEANS, La. — Rapper Mystikal has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a third-degree rape charge stemming from a 2022 case in Louisiana.
The 55-year-old artist, whose real name is Michael Tyler, appeared in court Tuesday for sentencing after reaching a plea agreement earlier this year. The agreement reduced the original first-degree rape charge, which carried a potential life sentence, to third-degree rape and capped his prison sentence at 20 years.
According to reports from WBRZ, the victim addressed the court during the hearing and urged the judge to impose the maximum penalty. She told the court that Tyler punched her, choked her, pulled braids from her hair, and forcibly raped her at his home in 2022.
After the victim’s statement, Tyler was given an opportunity to speak before sentencing. While he attempted to address the victim directly, he was instructed to direct his remarks to the judge.
“If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence,” Tyler said in court.
The judge ultimately sentenced him to 20 years in prison, five years short of the maximum 25-year sentence allowed under the third-degree rape conviction.
Mystikal rose to fame in the late 1990s and early 2000s with hits including Shake Ya Ass, The Man Right Chea, and Danger (Been So Long).
The latest conviction marks another chapter in the rapper’s long history of legal troubles. In 2004, he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual battery and extortion charges involving his hairstylist. He was also arrested in 2012 on a misdemeanor domestic abuse charge and later served time for a probation violation connected to the 2004 case.
In 2017, Tyler turned himself in on another rape charge and remained jailed on a $3 million bond until 2019. Those charges were later dismissed.
With Tuesday’s sentencing, Tyler will now serve a two-decade prison term in connection with the 2022 rape case.
