21 Savage Says He's Not Worried About Memes

21 Savage became the subject of a flood of social media memes after he was arrested by ICE for living in the country illegally as a UK national, told the New York Times they didn’t bother him that much.

“It ain’t about the meme, it’s about the bigger picture,” the 26 year old told the paper on Monday. “But I done been through way worse things in my life than somebody putting me on a meme. I been shot — what is a meme? A meme is nothing. That’s something on the internet that I can do like this [turns over phone] and never see again. I look at bullet scars every day, so it’s like, a meme, bro?”

Memes poking fun at the star’s situation became a point of contention in the days following his arrest by ICE agents. An off-handed joke about them forced Demi Lovato to delete her Twitter account, while Offset and Chris Brown spent days beefing over the latter’s insistence on sharing every 21 meme that made him laugh.

In the interview, the rapper, whose real name is Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, also addressed what it was like growing up with his immigration status up in the air.

“It felt impossible,” he said. “It got to the point where I just learned to live without it. ’Cause I still ain’t got it, I’m 26, and I’m rich. So, just learned to live without it.”

While 21 Savage made clear he should go through the same process as other immigrants in his situation – “It would be kind of messed up if they treated rich immigrants better than poor immigrants, I think.” — he also admitted to feeling a responsibility to speak for those who don’t have his platform.

“Yeah, I feel a responsibility. My situation is important ’cause I represent poor black Americans and I represent poor immigrant Americans,” he said. “You gotta think about all the millions of people that ain’t 21 Savage that’s in 21 Savage shoes.”

21 Savage was released last week after spending 10 days in custody pending a deportation hearing.

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