Atlanta rapper 21 Savage has been arrested by immigration officials who say he is actually from the UK, reports say.
The rapper, Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the US in July 2005 aged 12 and failed to leave when his visa expired a year later, officials said.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman said he was being held for removal proceedings.
He has previously described a childhood in Atlanta during interviews.
In an interview with Fader magazine in 2016 he said he first saw a gun aged eight – although the article did not specify where this incident took place.
He is also quoted in the interview as saying he was expelled from school in Atlanta aged about 12 or 13 for taking a gun to class.
A CNN reporter quoted an ICE spokesman as saying: “His whole public persona is false”.
Officials were waiting for a judge’s ruling before deciding how to proceed, a spokesman said.
Source: BBC