SMACK IN THE CENTRE of Paris's Trocadéro esplanade stands 21 Savage, face to face with the Eiffel Tower for the first time. It glows in the distance, across the Seine river, as a light rain falls and dusk settles around us. He's flanked by four security guards, all dressed in black like Savage, whose eyes peer out of a slick ski mask and North Face hood.
Savage's team giddily snaps pictures while he looks on, surrounded by a bustle of tourists. A salesman sets down the light-up Eiffel Tower toys he was peddling and volunteers to take group photos of Savage's entourage, which includes Buwop (née Kenya), Savage's right-hand woman and friend of nearly a decade, and Meezy, his manager. When Buwop wants a solo shot, the salesman gives her tips on how to pose in front of the tower like she's pinching it from above. "Oh, he know what he doing!" Meezy says.
At some point, as his friends enjoy the scene, Savage slips away, back into the luxury black SUV that took us here. He's taking it in quietly, but this visit to Paris is a pivotal new chapter in one of hip-hop's most unique stories. Savage is back to Europe for the first time since he was child; until very recently, this was impossible.
Born Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph in London, and raised in Atlanta from the age of seven, Savage, 31, is American by all standards but paperwork. He lived much of his life as an undocumented immigrant; for a while, he couldn't even drive or fly for lack of a government ID. As he made a name for himself as a street rapper with real gangster bona fides and menacing wit, he had to take cheap buses up the coast to label meetings in New York.
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