2 Chainz Arrested At Airport With Brass Knuckles

2 Chainz joined Drake on his Club Paradise Tour in Atlanta on Sunday night. But while jetting from New York to North Carolina on Tuesday (May 22) for another stop on the cross-country jaunt, the rapper was arrested for carrying "brass knuckles" in his bag.

A Port Authority officer confirmed to MTV News that 2 Chainz (born Tauheed Epps) was apprehended while entering the Delta Airlines terminal at New York City's LaGuardia Airport after officials found a pair of "metal knuckles" in his carry-on bag. Police took Chainz into custody for misdemeanor possession of a weapon in the 4th degree at around 1:45 p.m. ET. "The knuckles were in his personal bag and sounded the alarm," the officer told us.

The "No Lie" rapper was held in detention at the airport, where he'll eventually be taken to Queens County Central booking to be formally charged. Meanwhile, his peers, including DJ Drama and Big Sean, who saw him wearing the ring earlier this week, have addressed the arrest on Twitter, calling foul.

"2 chainz ain't have no brass knuckles, it was a 4 finger ring that spelled hood," Big Sean wrote minutes after news of the arrest was reported. "We had a shoot yesturday n he was rockin em."

DJ Drama, who dropped The Lost Tape with 50 Cent on Tuesday, spread the #Free2Chainz hashtag, adding an Instagram photo that shows 2 Chainz wearing the ring — clearly designed just for style.

MTV News caught up with the Def Jam signee before he took the stage in Atlanta on Sunday night, and he's seen sporting the same ring in the video footage. "The atmosphere is just unexplainable right now," he said of Drake's Club Paradise Tour. "We just came from the West Coast and the closer we get to home, the warmer it feels, as far as the welcome."

In the past few months, the Playaz Circle rapper has broken out of the underground to become a fixture on the mainstream, but he emphasizes that it was a long time in the making.

"I built a relationship with Drake on [Wayne's] I Am Music Tour," he said. "I met Nicki [Minaj] and Drake on the tour, and they're the ones that kept [me believing] in the back of my mind that I could do something, because I knew them when they were just trying to get on like me."

Fans can catch 2 Chainz in much better spirits on tonight's premiere episode of MTV2's "Hip Hop Squares" at 11p.m.ET.

Stick with RapFix.MTV.com and MTVNews for details in the developing story.