The UK-born Atlanta-based rapper announced the show via social media, showcasing childhood photos from his youth living in London, soundtracked to Skylar Grey’s “Coming Home”. The video in the post concluded with the words: “London, I’m coming home”. Drake has hinted towards making an appearance by making a comment underneath the post by simply responding: “*We’re.”

The 02 Arena show is a one-off show that isn’t a part of any specific tour for the rapper. Opening support for the show will be provided by Baby Drill and 21 Harold. The ticket pre-sale will be held on Wednesday, October 11^th at 9am, whilst general presale will be open on Friday, October 13^th. Tickets can be found here.

21 SAVAGE HOMECOMING
THE O2
NOV. 30 pic.twitter.com/wDU32Fl3WS

— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) October 9, 2023

The announcement for 21 Savage’s first show follows the news that the rapper has been declared a “lawful permanent resident” of the United States and is able to freely travel around the world, including to his native United Kingdom. 21 Savage was touring for Drake’s “It’s All A Blur” tour, but was unable to join him for shows outside of the United States until very recently as a result of immigration complications dating back to 2005.

21 Savage (real name: Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph), has been fighting a four year legal battle since 2019, as he was arrested for immigrating to the United States and overstaying his Visa, having arrived in the country in 2000 when he was 7 years old. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested unlawfully present United Kingdom national Sha Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph AKA ‘21 Savage’ during a targeted operation with federal and local law enforcement partners early Sunday in metro Atlanta,” were the words of ICE spokesperson Brian Cox at the time of arrest, however Savage’s lawyer at the time exclaimed: “We are working diligently to get Mr Abraham-Joseph out of detention while we work with authorities to clear up any misunderstanding,”

The investigation concluded that Savage had immigrated from the United Kingdom to the United States from the age of 7 in 2000, but then returned to the United Kingdom for his uncle’s funeral in 2005, aged 12, without any knowledge that his visa would expire in 2006. Savage would attempt to renew his visa in 2017 after learning it was a legal requirement.

Although many people will be aware of the rising popularity of UK rap and hip-hop in recent years, it is the rate and scale of this growth which might not be as well-known. The genre accounted for 22% of all singles consumption in 2020, whilst its share in the album market was 12.2%. Both figures represent all-time peaks for the genre. Meanwhile, when the BPI released the same figures for rap and hip-hop in the UK in 1999, the genre’s share in the singles market was 3.6% and its share in the album market was 2%. Thus, the popularity of hip-hop and rap has effectively increased six-fold over the last twenty years in the UK.

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Cited on the BPI website, multimedia broadcaster Jasmine Dotiwala commented on the genre’s stratospheric rise: “In the 90s, when I started working as a young Hip hop fan and TV presenter, I was told that Rap and Hip Hop would be a fleeting genre not to be taken seriously, especially the UK sound. Now it’s woven into the fabric of mainstream Pop culture – the power of Hip-hop and the influence of UK talent can be seen at every turn.”

She added, “Many of us have been privileged to have been allowed a seat at the table of Rap and Hip-hop culture by the Black community – the culture has given many people across various classes, ethnicities, locations and generations a career and chance to champion the music we love and enjoy.”

The new data also showed that domestic talent accounted for 33.6% of all rap and hip-hop consumption in the UK, an impressive stat for a genre that we have historically always looked towards our American cousins to produce. Now, artists like Stormzy, Dave, AJ Tracey, and J Hus have become titans of rap in their own right. Notably, with over 300,000 sales last year, Stormzy’s ‘Heavy Is the Head’ topped the UK’s international album chart for rap and hip-hop.

Such insights indicate a music scene growing in self-confidence; one that is becoming less likely to cater for its transatlantic counterpart and more unapologetically British. When we consider that it was not uncommon for British rappers to rap with American accents when the domestic hip-hop scene originated in the 1980s, the genre has truly come a long way in this country.

The comprehensive summary of the BPI’s newly-released data can be found here.