A run-in with Los Angeles police became a spectacle after officers pulled over Desiigner at a gas station. It was back in June when we reported on the incident that took social media by storm because it wasn’t the rapper who shared the footage—activist Tariq Nasheed just happened to be in the area. Nasheed immediately pulled out his camera to film the altercation, because all he saw was a Black man with a luxury vehicle being stopped and questioned by several officers.
“I was driving down the street here in #LA , and I saw the #LAPD surrounding this random brotha at a gas station,” wrote Nasheed at the time. “The cops had their hands on their gun holsters, so I pulled over and walked over to the brotha to make sure he was ok. From what I gathered, the cops were following the brotha because he happened to be in a nice car.”
Later, TMZ went on to share footage that they obtained, as well, and in a recent interview with VladTV, Desiigner expounded on the experience.
“The cop was clutching his gun,” said the rapper. “And I was like, ‘Yo, man, you ain’t gotta clutch your gun. I ain’t got nothin’ in the car.'” Desiigner claimed that police first stopped him because of the tint and his plates. He saw the officer next to him right before he was ready to drive into a residential area, and within seconds, the officer allegedly drove into Desiigner’s blind spot while sounding the siren.
The officer reportedly told Desiigner to get out of the car while gripping his holster. The rapper complied the entire time, but according to Desiigner, the cops were unnecessarily hostile so he returned the energy. He told the police that he has PTSD and was trying to keep it together.
Watch Desiigner detail the incident below.