DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage was briefly detained Thursday on drugs and weapons charges in DeKalb County.
The rapper, whose real name is Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, turned himself in to authorities at the DeKalb County jail and was released 12 minutes later, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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His attorney, Charles Kuck, told the AJC that the charges stem from the rapper’s arrest in 2019 by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Agents claimed at the time that Abraham-Joseph was British and had overstayed his visa.
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The rapper was born in England but moved to the Atlanta area when he was seven years old.
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“These manufactured charges are yet another example of how our justice system, from ICE down to the local level, unjustly targets young Black men who seek to exercise their rights,” Kuck said in a statement to the AJC. “There is no legitimate basis for these charges nor for ICE’s continued antics, and we will fight until Mr. Joseph is justly vindicated.”
Kuck said the rapper’s immigration case has been stalled because of the COVID-19 pandemic causing court delays.
“As a minor, his family overstayed their work visas, and he, like almost two million other children, was left without legal status through no fault of his own,” Kuck said following his client’s 2019 arrest.
Savage is known in the Atlanta community for his music, but also for his yearly school supply drives.