The rapper, born in London but raised in Atlanta, has recently been deemed a “lawful permanent resident” of the U.S., allowing him to travel internationally
21 Savage has been an invaluable player in the Atlanta rap scene for nearly a decade — but his true homecoming is about to happen 4,000 miles away. On Nov. 30, the rapper will take the stage at the O2 Arena in London, the city where he was born and lived for his early childhood years before relocating to Georgia. The headlining show will mark his first-ever live performance in his home country, having recently been deemed a “lawful permanent resident” of the U.S. and cleared for international travel.
The hometown performance — and his biggest headlining show to date — was first teased over the weekend when 21 Savage shared a compilation of childhood footage he recreated as an adult, set to the tone of Skylar Grey’s “Coming Home.” General sale for the concert will begin on Friday, Oct. 13, at 9 a.m. local time via Live Nation.
Now 30, the artist born Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph hasn’t left North America in 21 years. On Saturday, he delivered his first-ever international performance during the second Toronto stop on Drake’s It’s All a Blur tour. “I knew I wasn’t born here. 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,” 21 Savage told ABC’s Good Morning America in 2019. “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.”’
In February of that year, the rapper was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Atlanta. The agency revealed that he is actually from the U.K. and overstayed his visa, which reportedly expired in 2006 when he was only 14 years old. He was detained for a week at an ICE detention center, then allowed to remain in America while sorting out his immigration status, a process that took over four years.
Now, 21 Savage is planning on making up for lost time. According to Billboard, the rapper is plotting an international tour.