Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, has issued a statement announcing his retirement from the music and film industries.
The audio statement, which was issued through Kanye West’s website, also sees Bey discuss his recent arrest in South Africa on January 14 for attempting to leave the country with allegedly fraudulent documents. Bey argues that the “world passport” he had been using is widely accepted and says that there are political reasons for the arrest.
“Anyone can do the research about the world passport; it’s not a fictitious document. It is not meant to deceive or derive unlawful benefit from any nation’s state, at all,” Bey says. “In fact, the world passport has been accepted here on numerous occasions in South Africa, in ports Johannesburg and Cape Town as early as 1996 and as late as 2015.”
Bey concludes the statement with the announcement of his retirement from music and films, stating that the move is “related but not directly related” to the arrest in South Africa, and announces that his final album will be released this year. You can check out the statement in full above.
