A rapper from the duo LMFAO said he's the one who had a well-publicized run-in with onetime presidential candidate Mitt Romney on a Los Angeles-bound flight as it took off from Vancouver, and that the Republican politician is the one who started it.

As the Weekly's West Coast Sound reported Friday, rapper Sky Blu issued his side of the story via YouTube, saying that Romney was barking at him, while the plane was still on the tarmac Monday, to put his seatback up. Blu said that Romney escalated his orders and put his his hand on the rapper's shoulder — “he put a condor grip on me,” he said — and so he instinctively whipped his arm back at Romney and hit him.

“The man assaulted me,” Blu said via YouTube. “I was protecting myself.”

Blu also said that, contrary to reports, he wasn't arrested. Rather he was taken off the Air Canada plane after it turned around and landed in Vancouver following the incident. But he was allowed to board another flight. (A rapper named Sky Blu should really be flying Jet Blue anyway).

When the incident happened, the rapper had been seated directly in front of Romney's wife. Romney, who oversaw the Salt Lake Olympics, was taking in the Winter Olympics there. The rap duo was apparently headed for a gig in L.A.

Blu said the pair eventually quashed their beef as the plane headed back to Vancouver, but that a security agent decided to take him off the plane anyway. Romney's spokesman said the ex-Massachusetts governor had declined to press charges.

So who's laughing now?

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