Talib Kweli says American Airlines crew threatened to arrest him on recent flight

Talib Kweli ran into some issues while on the plane for a recent flight, which nearly resulted in his arrest. In an Instagram post Wednesday, the rapper shared that boarding took a left turn when he questioned why his carry-on had to be checked in.

“I asked why, so he got annoyed and called his supervisor,” Talib says of the flight attendant. Further confusion came from the supervisor’s following actions.

According to the rapper, the supervisor initially claimed that the attendant was wrong and said he was “good to fly.” She then returned to inform him that he’d go to jail if he didn’t obey the flight attendant, who’d been telling people he felt “unsafe.”

The supervisor came back again, this time to tell Talib he “must leave the plane.” She also instructed him to stop recording on his phone despite previously telling him it was OK for him to do so. 

Talib, who told the supervisor that making him leave was a violation of his customer and human rights, was then made to sit as everyone exited the plane and three officers came on board.

He says the cops “expressed surprise that @americanair crew threatened me with arrest and said only the police can make that call.” They declared that Kweli “got called out for nothing” and “didn’t do anything wrong.” 

“Clearly, my baggage wasn’t the issue,” Talib wrote.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.