Rapper Flavor Flav freed on bail in Las Vegas assault case

William Drayton, also know as entertainer Flavor Flav is shown in this booking photograph released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department October 17, 2012.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Rap star Flavor Flav of the group Public Enemy is free on $23,000 bail and will appear in a Las Vegas court next week on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence battery, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday.

The charges stem from a report of a fight by the 53-year-old rapper's fiancé. Flavor Flav, whose given name is William Drayton Jr, was also said to have threatened the woman's teenage son with a knife, police said in a statement.

Flavor Flav was arrested after a call to police came in before dawn on Wednesday from a residence about 10 miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, police said. He is due to appear in court on Monday.

"The caller advised she had been involved in a physical altercation with her fiancé who was identified as William Drayton," the police statement said.

Flavor Flav has posted on his Twitter account a tweet by a follower that said, "Someone forgot to tell (Flavor Flav) not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

The rap star faces a maximum six years in prison if convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and up to six months in jail if found guilty of domestic violence battery, said Tess Driver, a spokeswoman for the Clark County District Attorney's Office.

The Long Island-born Flavor Flav is best known as a rapper with the politically oriented group Public Enemy, which rose to fame in the 1980s with albums such as "Yo! Bum Rush the Show" and "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back".

His attention-grabbing wardrobe features a giant clock that he wears around his neck, and a Viking helmet. He opened a Las Vegas fried chicken and shrimp restaurant in March called "Flavor Flav's House of Flavor", which closed less than six months later.

In recent years, he has also starred in a number of reality shows, including "Flavor of Love", which ran from 2006 to 2008 and saw him look for a suitable romantic match from a bevy of female contestants.

(Reporting by Tim Pratt; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Dale Hudson)