Rapper Desiigner claims that the mid-air panic he experienced when he was arrested for masturbating on a plane last year was due to the fact that he’s a vegan and had been high on mushrooms.
The 27-year-old rapper, whose real name is Sydney Royel Selby III, blamed his dietary preferences after he was federally charged with repeatedly exposing himself on a Delta Airlines flight from Japan to Minneapolis last April.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” says the New York-based artist I told “No Jumper” Wednesday podcast.
“I was totally addicted to drugs. I was vegan at the time and I wasn’t getting enough sugar and stuff and it was like I was out of my body.”
The rapper, who has said in past interviews that he went vegan around the time COVID-19 began, also admitted that he had consumed mushrooms before the flight but wasn’t sure how much.
According to court documents, the designer, known for his hit song “Panda,” was arrested about 60 to 90 minutes into the flight after a flight attendant spotted him naked and masturbating in his first-class seat.
According to the lawsuit, he was arrested in the act multiple times during the flight.
After being moved to the back of the plane along with two fellow travellers who had decided to keep watch, the designer told security guards he had been “a nuisance”, “I messed up” and “I’m sorry”.
The designer, who apologized to the flight crew at the end of the flight, was arrested by the FBI as he disembarked from the plane.
At the time, the rapper told federal agents he “didn’t get much out of” Japan and showed a “magic wand” to one of the flight attendants he found attractive, according to the lawsuit.
The defendant also said he exposed himself “because he hadn’t done anything in about a week,” which the investigator understood to mean sex, the lawsuit states.
The designer claimed to FBI agents at the time that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the flight.
Following his mid-air antics, the designer revealed on social media that he had been admitted to hospital and given medication while performing overseas.
“Over the past few months I have not been okay and have struggled to accept what is happening,” he said in a statement.
“While I was overseas for a concert, I had to be admitted to the hospital and couldn’t think clearly. They put me on medication and I had to get on a plane back home,” he added. “I am ashamed of my actions that occurred on that plane. I have returned to the U.S. and am being admitted to a facility to treat myself.”
In a podcast interview this week, the designer stressed that what happens on the plane is “not intrinsic to my character.”
“I was on medication so I just slept on the plane,” he added.
Desiigner said he has since been admitted to a treatment centre where he is undergoing treatment.
“I had to go back home and pick myself up,” he said, adding that he was scared people would see him as a “pervert.”
The rapper pleaded guilty late last year to one federal misdemeanor count of indecent conduct on an aircraft.
The designer was sentenced to 120 hours community service, two years probation and fined $5,000.
