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Artist News
Now out of jail, 21 Savage speaks about his British accent and recent incarceration
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 20 February 2019
Rapper 21 Savage has spoken to the New York Times about his recent incarceration that resulted from America’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement agency declaring that the rapper was an “unlawfully present United Kingdom national” residing in the US illegally.
That 21 Savage – strongly linked to the Atlanta hip hop scene – was in fact British surprised many people. As his legal reps hit out at ICE and attempted to secure their client’s release from jail, it was confirmed that the rapper was indeed born in the UK. He had lived in the US since he was aged seven, initially legally. He explained that he had lost his legal status aged twelve through no fault of his own. In 2017, he applied for a visa to ensure that he was fully entitled to stay in the country, which is yet to be granted.
It was in part because of those ongoing efforts to secure a visa that the rapper’s team criticised ICE’s decision to take action at this time. Lawyers managed to get him released on bail last week, meaning he is out of jail while his case continues to go through the motions.
Asked in the NYT piece about what it was like moving to the US as a child, the rapper said: “Everything was like, bigger. I come from the poor side of London. My grandma’s house is real skinny. So when we first moved here, we was living in the hood still, but it was, like, way bigger. The toilet size, the bathroom size, it was just different. But I fell in love with it. It’s all I know”.
He then talks about having a British accent as a child, something he remembers because “on my first day of school [in the US] they was making fun of me, so I beat somebody up, and they was calling me ‘taekwondo kid’. My mama whupped me, she made me stay in the house. So I know I had an accent, but I been here 20 years – I don’t know what happened to it”.
Asked about his recent experiences and the impact of his incarceration, he went on: “It really wasn’t jail, it was the possibility of me not being able to live in this country no more that I’ve been living in my whole life. All that just going through your head, like, ‘Damn, I love my house, I ain’t gonna be able to go in my house no more? I ain’t gonna be able to go to my favourite restaurant that I been going to for 20 years straight?'”.
“That’s the most important thing”, he added. “If you tell me, ‘I’ll give you 20 million to go stay somewhere you ain’t never stayed’, I’d rather be broke. I’ll sit in jail to fight to live where I’ve been living my whole life”.
You can read the full interview here.
