2 Arrested in Scuffle at Rap Studio

Two bodyguards for a rap producer were arrested early Tuesday after they fought with security guards who barred them from entering a restricted area of a Reseda recording studio, police said.

The men, identified as Johnell Springer, 40, and Herbert Baudy, 36, both of Culver City, were arrested at 1:30 a.m. at Con Am Recording Studios on suspicion of being former felons in possession of guns.

A security guard noticed a gun on one of the members of the producer’s entourage as they tried to enter a restricted zone in the back of the studio in the 18000 block of Oxnard Street, said Officer Edward Funes, a Los Angeles police spokesman.

“When the bodyguards were challenged, they became combative and one of them attempted to reach for a gun he had in his waistband,” Funes said.

Security guards disarmed both men.

The bodyguards were carrying semiautomatic pistols that had been reported stolen about a year ago from a west San Fernando Valley storage building, police said.

They were released from Van Nuys Jail about seven hours later, Springer on $20,000 bond and Baudy on $28,000.

LAPD detectives would not identify the rap producer, saying he was a witness in the case. But sources familiar with the incident said he is Damon Thomas, known for his work on the “Gridlock’d” soundtrack, featuring the late Tupac Shakur.

Thomas reportedly was scheduled to meet with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight, who recently was released from a federal penitentiary in Oregon, sources said.

But Knight, who sources say owns the studio, never showed up.

The security guards are employed by Death Row Records and Con Am, sources said.

*

Times staff writer Chuck Philips contributed to this report.