6 Rappers Getting Kicked Off Planes
Even in a world full of traffic jams, lost wallets and hopelessly inflexible deadlines, few things are quite as unnerving as a visit to the airport. Maybe that explains why so many rap luminaries have flat-out lost it there over the last few years.
The Migos' own Offset says he was just minding his own business when the folks at American Airlines kicked him off their plane for apparently talking on his phone just before takeoff. Incensed, the rapper quickly uploaded an Instagram video of himself throwing some serious shade at both the man who threw him off the flight and American Airlines as a whole. Yikes.
Months before Offset endured his own bit of airline drama, Roc Nation's own Vic Mensa was also prevented from taking the flight he'd bought tickets for. After suffering a few lengthy delays, the "U Mad" performer was already on edge. So when one flight attendant apparently got a little bit too loud with one of the passengers in front of him, Vic sprang into action. Let's just say things only went downhill from there.
Unfortunately, the story of rappers and their problems with commercial airlines doesn't end there. Today, XXL takes a look at other rappers and other hip-hop artists who've been thrown off planes over the last few years. You can peep them for yourself in the list below.
- 1
Machine Gun Kelly
MGK made his mark on the mainstream with his single "Wild Boy," so you're probably not all that surprised to see his name pop up on this list. However, he maintained that he was treated unfairly when he was kicked off of his flight at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport back in 2015.
Apparently, the trouble began when MGK boarded the plane with his guitar, which had curse words scrawled all over it. In a lengthy Instagram post, he explained that the TSA officer compared the words on his guitar to the trauma caused by 9/11 years ago. Yeah, sounds like a reach to us too.
- 2
Offset
Offset is the most recent rapper to find trouble at the airport. Apparently, the folks at American Airlines weren't too happy when the Migos member was talking on his phone after he boarded the plane, so they saw fit to throw him off the flight. What's unclear here is whether or not he was talking on the phone before or after the plane's flight attendant told passengers to set their phones to airplane mode. His feelings on the matter, however, were as clear as day. Soon after being jettisoned by the flight crew, Offset uploaded a scathing rant against American Airlines and the flight attendant responsible for throwing him off the plane. “Fuck American Airlines,” he says in the beginning of the video. He continues, “Pussy ass niggas kicked me off the plane for motherfucking talking on my phone. And he was a Black nigga. You a real hoe. Lame ass nigga. Don’t get mad at me ’cause you work at the airport. Fuck American Airlines. Don’t nobody need to take that cheap ass flight anyway.” Although the platinum-selling artist was clearly pretty upset about the incident, he feigned indifference when he flashed his bag filled in front of his camera. “Fuck American Airlines. That’s the shit you send your hoes on,” he said near the end of a video he deleted from his Instagram page. “And I’m ’bout to take a private on y’all hoes. Kick me off the plane, I’ll go private.”
- 3
Vic Mensa
Vic Mensa's trouble with American Airlines started with his flight being delayed. It ended with he and the FBI having a conversation.
In a video recorded shortly after he was kicked off a flight last August, the Roc Nation MC explains that his issues with the airline really started when one of their workers began disrespecting a woman who was also set to board the plane. He, the woman and the rest of the flight's passengers had already faced significant delays, so Vic felt the airline worker's words were needlessly demeaning. That's what set him off.
“I don’t let that shit slide in front of me. I don’t let people talk to women like that around me, so I told him, ‘You need to watch your attitude speaking to her because we’re the ones been waiting,'" he explains in the vid.
He continues, "Then the man tried to tell me I couldn’t get on the plane and I had to step to the side. I’m like, well, I’ve been waiting forever. I’m not going, so I just scanned my own ticket and walked on.”
Vic goes on to claim that the man he confronted suffered from a bruised ego, and that the worker eventually had the police pull him off the plane. From there, Vic was told he'd be allowed to get back on once everyone else had boarded. Obviously that didn't happen.
A short time later, another airport worker told Vic that he wouldn't be able to board the flight, and he responded by throwing a metal bannister and flat-out having a fit. That's probably a big reason why he ended up talking to the FBI.
Still, Vic maintained that he had a moral imperative to stand up for the woman he felt had been wronged earlier.
- 4
Dizzee Rascal
On July 11, 2011, The Daily Mail reported that England's own Dizzee Rascal had been thrown off a plane after a confrontation with one of the airline's stewardesses. Apparently, Dizzee verbally abused the woman, and was subsequently kicked off the flight. He had been on his way to perform on the same bill as Cold Play and the Foo Fighters in Portugal, but was apparently prevented from doing so because of this incident. He also faced a lifetime ban from the British Airlines.
- 5
Chris Brown
Last March, the folks at TMZ claimed that C. Breezy and his entourage were kicked off of their flight for hotboxing their plane to Cannes. A report from the Miami-Dade Police indicated that Breezy's pilot smelled "a strong odor of marijuana," coming from the cabin.
TMZ's sources reported that the flight's captain warned the "Loyal" performer and his crew not to smoke on the plane. Apparently they didn't listen, and the cops quickly kicked them off the plane after they were called to the scene.
C. Breezy's friends reportedly recorded the entire experience on their snapchat, leaving the caption "We got kicked off the jet for smoking loud."
Brown denied the claims, but the Snapchat video makes them sort of hard to brush off.
- 6
Soulja Boy
Believe it or not, Soulja Boy's wild antics didn't up and start in 2017. Before his romanticized accounts of his street exploits and his now-deaded boxing match with Chris Brown, Soulja was thrown off an airplane for refusing to follow an American Airlines (again!) flight attendant's instructions to sit down.
A bit later, Soulja apologized for his actions, telling TMZ, "It was a bad night and me and the flight staff didn’t see eye to eye. In hindsight, I’m extremely sorry for all inconvenience caused to the passengers and employees of the airline.”