Aussie Rapper TKO In Trouble For Allegedly 'Inciting Dangerous Driving'

It’s hard enough being an amateur rapper trying to get your name out there. But for Aussie artist TKO (aka Tommy Owens), the best and worst thing just happened for his career: getting in trouble with police and making the news.

Yesterday (24 July), Owens dropped the music video for his latest track, ELDORADO. At the time of writing, it’s sitting at #26 Trending for music on YouTube, amassing over 18,000 views in a day.

In the music video, Owens and his cast of alleged “professionals” ride motorbikes and drive cars down Seaford Road, South Australia.

According to a report by 9 News Adelaide, the rapper, whose video features burnouts and wheelies, has been met with accusations of “inciting dangerous driving” and “reckless behaviour” investigated by the police.

SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens told 9 News Adelaide, “Notwithstanding it’s on a closed road, it’s reckless behaviour that can cause harm to people, and we don’t encourage that activity.”

When 9 News Adelaide approached Owens about the story yesterday, he told them, “No comment,” per his Instagram Stories.

The report states that Owens claimed that the road tricks were “performed by professionals on closed roads,” but 9 News Adelaide reported that learner and provisional drivers and motorbike riders actually performed them.

You can watch the music video below.

Since the beginning of the year, Owens has posted four new songs online as TKO, including January’s FROM THAT LIFE, I’M GRATEFUL (released in March), HOOD TALK (released in April), and the recently released ELDORADO. In November, he shared a video and said he’d be “bringing rap back like the 90s”.

Last year, Owens pled guilty to charges including “urinating in a public place, aggravated assault and carrying an offensive weapon,” The Advertiser reports.

The charges were laid out following December 2020 and April 2021 incidents in which Owens urinated on a car, assaulted a man and produced a knife at a popular beach in South Australia.

“I had a relapse … Then I had a big slap in the face from God, and he told me what I had to do and what has to be done,” Owens told the court. “Because of that, I am now a great father and a great husband.”

South Australian Magistrate Browne sentenced Owens to five months and 12 days imprisonment, with the charges added to his criminal record.