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Philly’s PnB Rock releases first single since arrest

He was charged in January with possession of narcotics, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy, and other related offenses.

MET29
Rapper and North Philadelphia native Rakim Allen, better known as PnB Rock, performs for a soldout crowd at the Met on North Broad Street.
MET29
Rapper and North Philadelphia native Rakim Allen, better known as PnB Rock, performs for a soldout crowd at the Met on North Broad Street.Read moreEd Newton / For the Inquirer

Philly rapper PnB Rock is back with his first single since being arrested on drug and gun charges at his Bensalem home earlier this year.

“I Like Girls,” the track, which features Waynesboro-born rapper and Atlantic Records labelmate Lil Skies, premiered Thursday on DJ Zane Lowe’s World Record program on Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station. The song serves as the first single off Rock’s forthcoming debut album, Trapstar Turnt Popstar, scheduled for release in May.

“It’s pretty universal, you know what I’m saying” Rock said of the song’s message. “Everybody likes girls.”

Rock, whose real name is Rakim Allen, 27, also discussed other planned tracks for Trapstar Turnt Popstar, including one that will feature a posthumous appearance from late emcee XXXTentacion. Other guests on the album include Migos member Quavo and Detroit-born rapper Tee Grizzley.

“I Like Girls” serves as Rock’s first single since he and girlfriend Stephanie Sibounheuang were arrested in January on gun and drug charges. At the time, police served a search warrant on Rock’s rented luxury townhouse in Bensalem, where investigators say they found four pounds of marijuana, $33,000 in cash, and a stolen handgun.

Both were charged with possession of narcotics, receiving stolen property, criminal conspiracy, and other related offenses, according to an Inquirer report, and were held at Bucks County Jail before the rapper ultimately posted a $500,000 bond to be released. As the rapper later said in an Instagram Live session, according to XXL magazine, he didn’t “know what the f— [the police] was talking about,” and denied the charges.

Previously, at age 19, Rock was sentenced to 33 months in SCI Forest in Marienville on drug charges. There, he told the Inquirer last year, he was able to grow as an artist.

“In the penitentiary, you have music all around you,” he said. “People are making beats on keyboards and rapping in circles all day. I was part of that. I’d go into my cell and write music on my own time.”

Listen to “I Like Girls” below, or watch the NSFW video over on YouTube: