Hip-hop artist Da Brat was sentenced on August 22 to three years in prison for hitting a woman with a bottle, while partying in an Atlanta nightclub last year.

According to police reports, the 34-year-old "Ghetto Love" rapper, born Shawtae Harris, cracked a cocktail waitress on the head with a rum bottle following a heated exchange after the 24-year-old waitress allegedly bumped into her.  The woman was immediately taken to hospital but she suffered permanent facial scarring, Superior Court Judge Gail Flake explained.

Members of Harris’s family wept when a sheriff’s deputy took her into custody. “I love you all,” Harris said. And they replied: “We love you too!”

She was sentenced to three years behind bars, seven years of probation and 200 hours of community service, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Harris had pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault.

"She feels a great deal of remorse for what she did," Harris's lawyer, Thomas Clegg, said. "She is willing to accept responsibility for what she has done."

This was not Da Brat's first run-in with the law. In March 2000, she was arrested for allegedly pistol-whipping a woman in a Buckhead, GA nightspot after the woman refused to leave the VIP area. She was fined $1,000,  placed on probation for 12 months and ordered to serve 80 hours of community service. The victim needed six stitches for a head wound.

Da Brat is the first female rapper to have a platinum-selling album, and her hits include the song "Funkdafied." She has also made appearances on reality TV shows such as "Celebrity Fit Club" and "The Surreal Life."