Rapper 21 Savage die werd aangehouden door de Amerikaanse immigratiedienst ICE vanwege een mogelijk illegaal verblijf in de VS, heeft voor het eerst gesproken sinds zijn vrijlating. De 26-jarige Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (21 Savage) werd aangehouden en meegenomen omdat zijn visum al 13 jaar verlopen zou zijn. Na zijn vrijlating is hij geïnterviewd door The New York Times om zijn verhaal te delen met de wereld.
Do you remember first arriving here when you were young?
“Yeah, everything was like, bigger. I come from the poor side of London. My grandma house is real skinny. So when we first moved here, we was living in the hood still, bit 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.”
Did you have a British accent?
“Yeah, I had a accent, ‘cause my first day of school 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 a accent, but I been here 20 years. I don’t know what happened to it.”
Do you remember when you became aware that your status wasn’t settled?
“Probably like the age when you start to get your driver’s license. I couldn’t never take diver’s ed, I couldn’t never go get a job. About that age.”
Was it something you wanted to get taken care of?
“It felt impossible. It got to the point where I just learned to live without it. ‘Cause I still ain’t got it, I’m 26, and I’m rich. So, just learned to live without it.”
Daarna verteld 21 Savage over zijn ervaring met de Amerikaanse immigratiedienst en wat er precies gebeurde op de dag toen hij werd meegenomen.
Bekijk de video hieronder voor het hele interview met 21 Savage.
