Fat Joe recently shared a wild twist of timing during the latest episode of his podcast Joe and Jada with Jadakiss, revealing he ran into Desiigner at an airport just before the rapper’s now-infamous arrest for indecent exposure in 2023.
The moment came up while the two were discussing one-hit wonders in hip-hop. “Oh, yo, ‘Panda, Panda,’ is the one,” Joe said, referencing Desiigner’s 2016 breakout hit. “He sold 10 million on that, right?” After Jadakiss remarked that the Brooklyn rapper made “a sht load of money,” Joe dropped the surprising detail. “You know what’s crazy? I seen him in Dubai in the airport that day,” he said. “The same f*cking day. He seemed so normal. I’m like, ‘Yo, what’s up, man?’ Then the next thing I know, when I arrive in the States… tumblin’ dice.”
Not long after that encounter, Desiigner made headlines for reportedly exposing himself while on a Delta Airlines flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. According to reports, he was caught masturbating in front of flight attendants mid-flight and was charged with indecent exposure.
Desiigner later pleaded guilty and issued a public apology, citing struggles with his mental health. “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 on Instagram. “While overseas for a concert I performed at, I had to be admitted into a hospital, I was not thinking clearly. They gave me meds, and I had to hop on a plane home. I am ashamed of my actions.”
In a 2024 interview with Adam22 on No Jumper, Desiigner further addressed the incident, claiming a mix of jet lag, medication, and poor nutrition left him disoriented. “I didn’t have enough sugars and stuff like that,” he said. “I was kind of, like, out of my body… It really wasn’t who my character was.”
Though the legal issues have since quieted down, Fat Joe’s recollection adds another surreal layer to a headline-grabbing moment in Desiigner’s career.