Yasiin Bey, the rapper formerly known as Mos Def, found himself unable to enter the United States due to "legal" issues, and therefore has cancelled his upcoming tour. The news was initially reported on Thursday as Bey being "denied entry" to the country, but more recent reports suggest otherwise.
Bey hasn't given any indication as to what the "legal issues" consist of. The only information available comes from a statement made by Boston's Together Music Festival: "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."
Bey was born and loved in Brooklyn his entire life prior to leaving the country to live in South Africa, so he still possesses birthright citizenship unless he has formally renounced it, which doesn't seem to be the case. Whatever legal issues are involved in the current fiasco, they don't seem to be immigration-based.
Not that Bey hasn't lamented the current state of the nation before.
"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.' It's very hard to leave," he told Rolling Stone. "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."
