The son of late funk icon Rick James is sitting in a Los Angeles County jail cell, facing a felony fentanyl charge and a string of other counts that have finally caught up with him after years in the court system.
Tazman Johnson, the youngest child of the Super Freak singer, was booked into custody on April 29 on a felony warrant along with a separate no-bail warrant, according to jail records detailed in a report on his case.
How the case began
The legal trouble traces back to March 2024, when Johnson was first arrested on suspicion of fentanyl possession. He was hit with two misdemeanor counts at the time, (1) misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and (2) misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. He posted bond and walked free.
That freedom did not last. Roughly two weeks later, a judge issued a $10,000 bench warrant after Johnson failed to show up for a scheduled court date. The warrant lingered for months, and he was not taken into custody on it until April of this year.
The charges stacking up
Once back before a judge, Johnson pleaded not guilty to both drug-related counts last month. But the fentanyl case is not the only thing hanging over him. He is also staring down (3) a burglary charge stemming from a 2019 arrest, adding a third serious count to his mounting legal file.
Sources connected to Johnson say he has entered a program while behind bars and is keeping his focus on his music career as the case moves forward. An underground rapper, he has spent years carving out his own lane, distinct from the towering legacy of his father.
A haunting echo of his father’s struggles
The arrest lands with painful weight given the family’s history. Rick James battled drug addiction for much of his life, a struggle that shadowed his career and his final years. The Grammy-winning artist died in August 2004 at age 56, with the cause traced to pulmonary and cardiac failure. Cocaine and methamphetamine were found in his system at the time of his death.
James fathered three children with two different women. Johnson’s mother is Tanya Hijazi, the costume designer and actress who shared a turbulent relationship with the funk star.
For a son who has worked to step out from under one of music’s most notorious shadows, the fentanyl case now threatens to pull him back into a story he has spent years trying to rewrite.
Story credit: TMZ