Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born 22 October 1992), better known by his stage name 21 Savage, was a British rapper from London, England; he started his career in Atlanta, Georgia, and it was believed that he was an American until 3 February 2019, when he was arrested by ICE for overstaying his visa.
Biography[]
Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph was born in London, England on 22 October 1992, and he was raised by his mother in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from the age of 12; his brother Quantivayus was killed during a drug deal. In seventh grade, Abraham-Joseph was excluded from almost every school in DeKalb County for gun possession, and he was sent to a youth detention center after attending Metro Atlanta schools. Abraham-Joseph was a member of the Bloods gang while growing up, and he was shot six times during an attempted robbery on 22 October 2013; his best friend was killed. On 12 November 2014, under the rap name "21 Savage", he released his first single. His debut album, Issa Album, was released on 7 July 2017, featuring his hit song "Bank Account". He caused controversy with anti-Semitic lyrics about "Jewish money", and, on 3 February 2019, he was arrested by ICE after they discovered that he was really a British national who had been in the USA since his non-immigrant visa expired in July 2006; he was always believed to have been a native of the Atlanta area, and his public persona as an American was proven to have been false. In October 2020, he and Atlanta-based producer Metro Boomin released an album titled Savage Mode II; a sequel to his first EP released in 2016, Savage Mode.