Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) has canceled his upcoming U.S. tour over immigration issues barring him from coming back to the 50 states, reports All Hip Hop.
A statement posted on one of the organizers’ website last week announced the scrapped shows. “We regret to inform you that due to immigration / legal issues Yasiin Bey is unable to enter back into the United States and his upcoming U.S. tour has been canceled, including May 15th, Together Boston’s show at The Wilbur Theatre. Individual ticket refunds for this show are available at point of sale.”
Bey moved to South Africa last year. He recently spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about relocating. “I lived in Brooklyn 33 years of my life. I thought I’d be buried in that place. And around seven years ago, I was like, you know, ‘I gotta go, I gotta leave,'” he shared. “It’s very hard to leave. And I lived in a lot of places. Central America. North America. Europe for a while. And I came to Cape Town in 2009 and it just hit me. I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I know when a good vibe gets to you. And, you know, I thought about this place every day from when I left.”
In May 2013, Bey, whose birth name is Dante Terrell Smith, made the official move with the help of friend/manager Abdi Hussein (aka Whosane). “So, I came and I said I’m not leaving, I’m staying,” continued the 40-year-old lyricist. “And I’m not here just for like middle class comfort, you know. Sure, it’s a beautiful place, you got the ocean, the mountain, the botanical garden, the beautiful people, the history, the culture, the struggle and everything — maaan, let me tell you something, for a guy like me, who had five or six generations not just in America but in one town in America, to leave America, things gotta be not so good with America.”
It is unclear what kind of discrepancies are holding up his re-entry into the U.S.
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So then that means he had to give up US citizenship then? Well I hope he gets to come…I love his music…Umi Said speaks to me every single time I hear it.
Mystery Babylon….bet if it was french montana …di moroccan he would have no problem going back….but mos def is not wat its about
This is interesting. Wonder why ‘Merica would bar him from doing a tour even if he gave up citizenship. Nuff respect to Mos Def fi follow weh him heart lead..:2thumbup
Wowww, I’m stunned
If he gave up citizenship then he would need the same work visas as our artistes or any other from a foreign country @Yawdy…..that’s something his immigration lawyer should have told him from when he was going through the process of renouncing citizenship if he did so formally.
Dont be fooled more than likely he gave it up, if he did for tax reasons and now want to go back go make money. IRS don’t f**k with them understand that.
makes no sense to mi cause if him do nutten wrong African a right a di US of A dem a deport him
He did not give up his citizenship, all he did was speak out against the the America’s treatment of the ones who are held in Guantanamo while he was in England last year. Under the Patriot act in you are flagged as being an Enemy Combatant, US citizen or not, you will be denied access to this country.
There was another American born artist who spoke about how he was banned from re-entering the US just because the traveled around the word on one-way tickets.
After $10,000 in legal fee and months, he was able to go back home and he was not afforded a single explanation…
Things are such that if you were to be labeled as an Enemy Combatant, there is nothing that civilian court can do for you…
Well, meck dis be a lesson to all, dat if Merica can block dem own homegrown people fram re-enter dem own land of birth, den wah more fi immigrants who neva bawn deh. Dis is one story mi will keep watching. Meck mi guh teck out mi Jcan passport yah, dats if dem still want mi…lol.
He owes child support and he wasn’t suppose to leave the country apparently so until he pays he will be denied entry. Same thing happened to Jermaine Jackson when he went over to South Africa.