Rapper Desiigner has insisted there’s a reason for a mid-air meltdown that saw him busted for masturbating on a flight last year — he’s vegan and was high on mushrooms.
The 27-year-old rapper — whose real name is Sidney Royel Selby III — blamed his diet preference after he was slapped with a federal charge for repeatedly exposing himself on a Delta flight from Japan to Minneapolis in April last year.
“I didn’t know what I was doing,” the Big Apple-based artist told the “No Jumper” podcast Wednesday.
“I was fully tweaked out of my mind. This was when I was vegan, I didn’t have enough sugars and stuff like that… I was kind of, like, out of my body.”
The rapper, who has revealed in past interviews that he took up veganism at the beginning of COVID, also admitted he had consumed shrooms before the flight but wasn’t sure how to dose them.
Desiigner, known for his hit “Panda,” was busted after a flight attendant spotted him exposing himself and masturbating in his first-class seat about 60-90 minutes into the flight, according to court papers.
He was busted mid-act several more times throughout the flight, the complaint said.
After he was moved to the back of the plane with two travel buddies who agreed to keep watch over him, Desiigner told his security guard that he was “bugging,” had “messed up” and was “sorry.”
Desiigner, who apologized to the air crew at the end of the flight, was arrested by the FBI when he stepped off the plane.
At the time, the rapper told the feds he “didn’t get much” in Japan and showed his “magic stick” to one of the flight attendants he found attractive, according to the complaint.
He also said he’d exposed himself “because I didn’t have anything in like a week,” which the agent understood to mean sex, the filing said.
Desiigner insisted to the FBI agent, at the time, that he was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol during the flight.
In the wake of his mid-air antics, Desiigner took to social media to say he had been admitted to a hospital while performing oversees and given meds.
“For the past few months I have not been ok, and I have been struggling to come to terms with what is going on,” he wrote in the statement.
“While overseas for a concert I performed at, I had to be admitted in to a hospital, I was not thinking clearly. They gave me meds, and I had to hop on a plane home,” he added. “I am ashamed of my actions that happened on that plane. I landed back to the states, and am admitting myself in a facility to help me.”
During the podcast interview this week, Desiigner stressed his plane antics “really wasn’t who my character was.”
“I was on medication and just went to sleep on the plane,” he added.
Desiigner said he ended up in a treatment center and undergoing therapy in the aftermath.
“I had to get back home and get myself back together,” he said, adding he feared people would see him as “a pervert.”
The rapper ended up pleading guilty late last year to one federal misdemeanor count of indecent exposure on an aircraft.
Desiigner was sentenced to 120 hours of community service, two years probation and a $5,000 fine.