Rapper takes to Facebook to make announcement, then deletes it.

Yasiin Bey, f.k.a Mos Def, took to Facebook last night to let fans know he wouldn’t perform a string of European dates. The video also included a mention of his previously hinted at retirement, with the rapper saying “I’m retiring this year for real.”

The video has since been deleted from Facebook, though posts urging fans to buy tickets for the now cancelled shows are still up. According to Pitchfork, Bey told fans in the video he might offer them exclusive live video streams of a performance instead.

Bey was scheduled to perform a string of shows in the UK, including one at London’s O2 performing Mos Def material alongside the Hyptonic Brass Ensemble, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

In January, he was arrested for attempting to leave South Africa, where he resides, using a world passport. The authorities gave him and his family 14 days to leave the country. He then issued the following video statement, claiming “I’m under unnecessary state supervision and scrutiny, and I have reason to believe or suspect that there are political motivations behind the way I’m being treated, because this is following no reasonable train of logic.”

As for his retirement, in the now-deleted video the rapper stated “I do have one or two films that I made commitments to earlier, before I announced my retirement. Apart from that, I’m moving onto other things, still being creative. You know, definitely fashion, textiles, and just art. Whatever I can create that’s beautiful and useful, that’s what I wanna do.” He then offered “exclusive new material” to Jay Z for his Tidal streaming platform.

In spring this year, Bey uploaded three new songs under the Dec 99th alias, which features production from Chicago’s Ferrari Sheppard and were recorded in Cape Town.

Latest

Latest



		
	
Share Tweet