Talib Kweli has alleged that American Airlines threatened to have him arrested on a flight.
The Black Star rapper shared the ordeal on social media by posting several videos of the altercation.
It appeared that a disagreement arose after Kweli was told that his carry-on item didn’t fit underneath his seat. Despite later being told that it was OK and that he could return to his seat, Kweli later claimed that he was then told to leave the plane.
“After clearing my bag with the gate agent, [a] flight attendant tells me my bag is too big and I must check it,” Kweli wrote on Instagram.
“I asked why, so he got annoyed and called his supervisor. The supervisor tells me it’s her decision whether I fly or not. That’s an important detail.”
“The supervisor sees that the attendant Seaglass was wrong about my bag and walks me to my seat and says l’m good to fly,” Kweli added shared.
“Moments later the supervisor comes back and tells me that if I do not obey the flight attendant while in the air, I will go to jail. The whole time, Seaglass, who I’m not talking to at all, is telling people he feels ‘unsafe.’”
The rapper then said that the unnamed supervisor returned to tell him he “must leave the plane”. He said that he felt “that’s a violation of my human rights” before she told him to stop recording. “Even though earlier she said I could record,” he added.
As HipHopDX reports, all passengers were then instructed to leave the plane while Kweli remained.
“They then send 3 police officers in. Police expressed surprise that @americanair crew threatened me with arrest and said only the police can make that call. Cops then say ‘we got called out for nothing’ and ‘you didn’t do anything wrong.’ It’s right there on video,” Kweli continued.
American Air has yet to address the controversy.
Kweli reunited recently with Black Star. They were the musical guests on a November 2022 episode of Saturday Night Live – you can watch the performance here.
The duo of Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) and Talib Kweli re-grouped earlier in 2022 with a Madlib-produced album called ‘No Fear Of Time’, their first album since 1998’s ‘Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star’.