Rapper Designer Gives Ridiculous Diet Excuse for Manic Episode on Plane in Which He Exposed Himself
A hip-hop star who exposed himself in public three times during a flight blames his vegan lifestyle for his crazy moment.
Desiigner, whose real name is Sidney Royel Selby III, was arrested following the incident on a first-class Delta flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis in April and sentenced to 120 hours of community service, a $5,000 fine and two years of probation.
His management previously indicated that exhaustion from his trip to Japan, but also marijuana, mushrooms and medications were the cause of an unknown illness in a Thai hospital.
But now the 27-year-old says the incident was actually due to “low sugar levels,” which he says was a result of his vegan diet.
Designer, whose real name is Sidney Royel Selby III, is pictured above in the podcast interview where he blamed veganism for his actions on the flight
![Rapper Designer Gives Ridiculous Diet Excuse for Manic Episode on Plane in Which He Exposed Himself 2 Rapper Desiigner, 26, admitted in court to exposing himself and masturbating on a flight in April of last year. He is pictured above in a Manhattan courtroom in 2016 after being charged with menacing, possession of a controlled substance and brandishing a weapon. Pictured in 2016](https://nybreaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Rapper-Designer-Gives-Ridiculous-Diet-Excuse-for-Manic-Episode-on.jpeg)
Rapper Desiigner, 26, admitted in court to exposing himself and masturbating on a flight in April of last year. He is pictured above in a Manhattan courtroom in 2016 after being charged with menacing, possession of a controlled substance and brandishing a weapon. Pictured in 2016
In the podcast No Jumper, which interviews rap artists, the Grammy nominee said: ‘I didn’t know what I was doing, I was completely distraught.
“That was when I was vegan, I wasn’t having enough sugars and stuff like that, so yeah… I felt a little bit out of my body.”
The New York resident added that he had also taken magic mushrooms before the flight and was unsure about the proper dosage of the substances, which are illegal in the U.S.
There is little evidence that a vegan diet can cause such antisocial behaviour. According to doctors, it is a ‘new excuse’ that ‘doesn’t pass the smell test’.
However, doctors suspect that substances such as alcohol and drugs may be much more potent at 12,800 meters because of the drop in oxygen levels.
![Rapper Designer Gives Ridiculous Diet Excuse for Manic Episode on Plane in Which He Exposed Himself 4 According to Billboard, the musician was in Thailand last Friday to take the stage at the Rolling Loud festival, after which he performed in Tokyo. Pictured in LA in 2017](https://nybreaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1720751108_64_Rapper-Designer-Gives-Ridiculous-Diet-Excuse-for-Manic-Episode-on.jpeg)
According to Billboard, the musician was in Thailand last Friday to take the stage at the Rolling Loud festival, after which he performed in Tokyo. Pictured in LA in 2017
![Rapper Designer Gives Ridiculous Diet Excuse for Manic Episode on Plane in Which He Exposed Himself 6 Checking into a facility: In the aftermath of the incident, Desiigner said he checked into a mental health facility following the incident, sources told TMZ at the time; seen in May 2022](https://nybreaking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/1720751110_812_Rapper-Designer-Gives-Ridiculous-Diet-Excuse-for-Manic-Episode-on.jpeg)
Checking into a facility: In the aftermath of the incident, Desiigner said he checked into a mental health facility following the incident, sources told TMZ at the time; seen in May 2022
In airplane cabins, oxygen levels are about four percent lower than on the ground, which also causes blood oxygen to drop.
This causes more blood to flow to the brain to compensate and slows down the metabolism, making the substances more effective.
Responding to suggestions that the incident was caused by veganism, Dr. Stuart Fischer, an emergency physician in New York City, said it was a “poorly constructed excuse with no scientific basis.”
He told DailyMail.com: ‘This is a novel excuse, but it wouldn’t work in an elementary school and it certainly doesn’t pass the smell test.
‘A vegan diet consists only of carbohydrates. I am not saying that it is healthy or unhealthy, but those who eat it do not suffer from disturbances in intonation, expression, speech, walking and certainly not from indecent behavior.’
Designer turned vegan in 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, saying in a Interview February it had ‘changed my life’ and ‘put me on a better path’. It is not clear when he stopped the diet.
During the 12-hour Delta flight last April, Desiigner exposed himself to sunlight for 60 to 90 minutes after the flight began.
He covered himself, but then showed himself a second time. The flight attendants asked him to stop, which he did. They told him he would be arrested if they landed.
He then exposed his genitals for the third time, after which the singer was taken to the back of the plane. As he was being moved, Vaseline fell out of his pants.
After his arrest in Minneapolis, the New York resident told the FBI that he had “not had much sex” in Japan and had “hardened” after becoming attracted to a female flight attendant.
He said he hoped they would be attracted to his “magic wand” by exposing themselves.
After the flight, he checked himself into a mental health facility, saying he felt “ashamed” of his actions and that he had not been feeling well “for the past few months.”
In September, he was sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to a federal crime: indecent exposure. He was caught exposing himself and masturbating during the flight.
Previous reports suggested that he would be placed on a sex offenders list, but his management denies these allegations.
Lawyers for the Timmy Turner singer previously said in court documents that he was suffering from “dehydration, exhaustion from touring and traveling, marijuana he ingested and medications he obtained from a hospital in Thailand.”
He has not been banned from flying since then and has repeatedly apologized to both the crew and everyone on board the flight for his actions.
He said during the podcast: ‘I wasn’t in the right place. I was just having so much fun and I just wasn’t in control of myself at that moment.
“I came home and started improving myself. It’s time to read more, it’s time to go hiking, it’s time to exercise, it’s time to really put myself out there and build a mental camp for myself to figure it all out.”
He also says he is now 100 percent sober.