Musician cries foul after Home Affairs arrest
Mos Def denies he has broken the law
AMERICAN hip hop star Dante Terrell Smith, also known as Yasiin Bey or Mos Def, has shared his woes about being kicked out of South Africa with fellow rapper Kanye West in a recorded phone conversation.
A defiant Smith insisted he had not broken any law or committed any crime.
The recording of the call he makes to West begins with a freestyle where he raps: “Peace, this is Yasiin. No more parties in SA. Please, tell them no more parties in SA. Hey, Home Affairs, I don’t need to stay.
“I reason I stay away. I committed no crime any place. Why these police all up in my face? Why they raiding my place? Why I don’t feel safe? This is not an expression of fear.”
Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said Smith faces serious charges relating to breaching South Africa’s immigration laws.
“In terms of the seriousness of the charges, they are. If they were not (serious) we wouldn’t have arrested him,” Apleni said yesterday at a media briefing in Pretoria.
“You can’t break the laws of another country. Whether or not you are a citizen in our country, you are not allowed to break the law. We deal with you on that basis.”
Apleni said Smith, who is out on bail, will appear in court on March 8 to answer to the charges.
But Smith was defiant in the recording. “This is just to make things clear. My intentions are pure in coming here. And that’s for everything I love or hold dear. Homies in the building. So is my wife and my children. I committed no crime. Why is the state wasting my time? They must be out of their minds. I forgive them, that’s the spirit of divine. I just want to go where I’m wanted. Where I’m loved. Stop fronting. Where I live is my choice. You cannot mute my voice.”
Smith, who was calling West from Cape Town, insisted that he had broken no laws.
“I’m under unnecessary state supervision… And, I have reason to believe, or suspect, that there are political motivations behind the way I am being treated. This is following no reasonable strain of logic, and it’s also… curious. I haven’t broken any law. And I’m being treated like a criminal.”
Apleni said Smith’s family had received an order to leave the country by January 29, stating that the visitors’ visa of Smith’s spouse and child had expired in April 2014.
However, Smith said to West that he’d had enough of South Africa anyway.
“I seek is to leave this state… People keep whatever state jobs that they’re worried about or concerned about losing, because I just want to go home… The state of South Africa is interfering with my ability to move, but to even fulfil my professional obligations unnecessarily. But that’s fine.”
Smith also announced that he would retire after releasing an album this year.