21 Savage ‘wasn’t hiding’ being British, feared deportation
ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage in an interview aired on Friday said he did not talk about his British citizenship before because he did not want to get deported.
The Grammy-nominated artist, whose given name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was arrested on Feb. 3. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement called it a targeted operation. He was released from immigration custody Wednesday on a $100,000 bond.
Abraham-Joseph, now 26, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” he had no idea what a visa was when his mother brought him to the US at age 7. His visa expired in 2006.
“I knew I wasn’t born here,” he said. “But I didn’t know like, what that meant as far as when I transitioned into an adult, how it was going to affect my life.”
The rapper said he wasn’t hiding the fact that he isn’t a US citizen, but “I didn’t want to get deported so I’m not going to just come out and say, ‘Hey, by the way, I wasn’t born here.’’”