Yasiin Bey Announces He’s Retiring From Rap, Releasing Last Album This Year

Following news of his arrest in South Africa for using what authorities believed to be a fraudulent passport, Yasiin Bey has released an official comment Wednesday morning (Jan. 20) denying any wrongdoing and announcing his retirement from both music and film.

In a 10-minute audio clip, which sounds spoken through a telephone, Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, begins with a "No More Parties in L.A" riff, rapping, "No more parties in S.A., please tell 'em no more parties in S.A. / Hey home affairs, I don’t need to stay/I’ll leave and I’ll stay away/I committed no crime any place/Why the police up in my face?" Bey calls the rap a freestyle he had to let out and thanks Kanye West for being a real friend.

Bey goes on to detail the events following his arrest and defends his use of the a world passport. "At this present time, I am currently in Cape Town South Africa and I am being prevented from leaving unjustly, unlawfully and without any logical reason," he said. And of the passport, "It is not meant to deceive or derive unlawful benefit from any nation state."

The rapper then goes on to suggest that there is political motivation for the way that he has been treated, and says that he has not been physically harmed. "I just want to go home," he said. "And I don’t live in America and I have a right to domicile wherever I please without fear and without interference."

From the sounds of it, the entire ordeal has been a tremendous strain on Bey, who says that he does his best to mind his business and avoid this type of friction. "My family and I are prepared immediately to make whatever move that we need to make outside of this state, never to return to this state again," he says of South Africa.

Towards the audio's conclusion, Bey announces his retirement, saying, "Related but not directly related to this, I’m retiring from the music recording industry as it is currently assembled today. And also from Hollywood, effectively immediately. I will be releasing my final album this year and that’s that."

The audio message was tweeted out by West, who is hosting it on his website as well. Hopefully Bey and his family find a peaceful conclusion to this incident in the near future.

Also the Instagram account that is posting album cuts with features from Kanye West, J. Cole, Lupe Fiasco and Kendrick Lamar is fake, per rep. That account is not run or affiliated with Mos in any way. "He's been very frustrated with that because so many people believe it's him," she said. "It never was him." Peep the fake posts below.

See New Music Releases for January 2016