Rapper/Former Criminal Jay-Z Hiring Attorney to 'Help' ICE Arrested Rapper 21 Savage

Nick Kangadis | February 7, 2019
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When you’re an bragadocious criminal, it should come as no surprise when that person comes to the defense of other criminals. Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z is such a person.

Jay-Z, whose real name is Sean Carter, has reportedly hired New York-based attorney Alex Spiro to defend recently arrested rapper 21 Savage, whose real name is Sheyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph.

"He knows people are following his case and are supporting him and I think that has buoyed his spirits," Spiro said, according to Fox 5 - Atlanta.

Abraham-Joseph came to the U.S. legally in 2005, but overstayed his Visa, which expired in 2006. Since becoming an illegal resident in the U.S., Abraham-Joseph gained fortune in the U.S. while also being convicted in 2014 of felony drug charges.

According to CNN:

ICE says that the rapper, whose real name is Shayaabin Abraham-Joseph, is a citizen of the United Kingdom, according to [ICE spokesman Bryan] Cox. The agency alleges that he entered the US legally in July 2005, when he was a minor, but subsequently failed to depart under the terms of his nonimmigrant visa. ICE says Abraham-Joseph became unlawfully present when his visa expired in July 2006.

An online petition was started after Abraham-Joseph’s arrest, which currently has over 355,000 signatures out a goal of 400,000. The petition is on the black activist website, organizefor.org.

According to the petition:

The hundreds of ICE assaults and detention of Black immigrants is an endemic in the United States, and is too often carried out with the assistance of local law enforcement. On February 3rd in the early afternoon, organizers were alerted to the arrest and detention of rapper, father, community activist and friend She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph -21 Savage. The circumstances of Mr. Abraham-Joseph's detention stand as a testament to the consistent and historically under-reported harassment and targeting of Black immigrants. The US' violent history of criminalizing Blackness intersects with its deadly legacy of detaining and deporting Black and Brown immigrants. This needs to stop today!

There are around 4.2 Million Black immigrants in the U.S. - 619,000 are undocumented. Mr. Abraham-Joseph has been in the United States since he was a young child. Atlanta is his home. He has no current or prior criminal convictions and he is beloved by his friends, fans and family. It is shameful that he and so many Black immigrants are separated from their families on a daily basis as part of the US's heartless and racist immigration policies.

Demand that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stop the deportation of She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph - 21 Savage NOW!

The petition’s assertion that Abraham-Joseph “has no current or prior criminal convictions” is contrary to ICE’s claim that the rapper does indeed have a prior felony drug charge.

Abraham-Joseph could receive a bond hearing, but there’s no timetable for a possible court date.

As for the Jay-Z, his own past makes his defense of an alleged criminal laughable at best. Jay-Z was a drug dealer at the age of 13, later telling Oprah Winfrey that Brooklyn drug dealers were his “role models.” The mogul also shot his older brother when he was 12-years-old and stabbed a producer in 1999, according to CBS DC. Jay-Z eventually plead guilty to a third-degree assault charge in 2001 for the 1999 incident.

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