It’s been an interesting 72 hours for left-leaning Seattle rapper Gabriel Teodros. On Tuesday afternoon, the jovial rapper who is often seen performing at places like Hidmo in the Central District or at rallies for indigenous peoples rights, left Seattle on what was supposed to be the beginning of a three month tour.
He was initially headed to England doing solo shows. Then it was off to Europe to tour with Souls of Mischief, and then to the Middle East with Arab American rappers Ragtop of the Philistines and Omar Offendum. Eventually Teodros was scheduled to play in East Africa with shows in Ethiopia and Nairobi.
There aren’t any other Seattle rappers who come to mind that are bold enough to put together a tour together like that, which is why so many artists in the local music community were excited for him to make it all happen.
But his trip was unexpectedly halted when he was stopped and detained at London’s Heathrow Airport on Wednesday for eight hours before being denied entrance into the country. The reason he was given for his detainment was that border officials didn’t think he had enough money on his person to support himself during his visit (without ever giving him an answer to how much money is sufficient )and that he obtained a visitor’s visa for the trip and not a proper work visa.
Teodros was scheduled to perform at the University of Kent this weekend, and wasn’t totally honest about that with the border officials.
I talked to Teodros a few minutes ago, and he’s quick to admit that it’s an error he regrets. Since he didn’t have a work visa, he thought he would have to omit that he was being paid to perform at Kent and told a half-truth by saying he was only coming to London to visit family. Teodros does have family in London and other parts of Europe, some of which he’s never met before, and he’s heartbroken that he won’t get the chance to see them.
During his detainment, border officials did contact the University of Kent, and they were able to gather all of the correct paperwork that Teodros would have needed to be allowed into the country. But border officials decided to put him on a plane to Reykjavik, Iceland where he stayed at a hotel for a night, and then onto New York where’s he’s currently figuring out his next move. He’s been back in the United States for less than 24 hours. According to Teodros, what’s most upsetting to him is that the visa issue is not what got him barred from entering the U.K. but rather a lack of funds.
“I had a $1,000 that was immediately accessible, that’s what I could prove I had on me at the time,” Teodros says from Brooklyn, New York where he’s currently connecting with all of the Seattle rappers there for CMJ.
“But I had more than that in a deposit that just hadn’t cleared yet. If I knew that was the main reason I was being detained, I would have made phone calls and had more money sent to me. But I was asking everyone at the border office very clearly, how much money is a sufficient amount, and nobody would tell me. That makes me think, there was nothing I could do to get in the country.”
The length of Teodros’ U.K. stint would have been five weeks.
During Teodros’ brief stint in Iceland, he later found out via the folks at the University of Kent that he actually didn’t have to lie at the border at all regarding his lack of a work visa.
“I found out afterward I could have said I was going to do an academic conference at a University and they’re paying me an honorarium and it would have been okay. It’s not like playing a show at a nightclub where I would have needed a concessions visa.”
It’s all a tough lesson, especially considering that most of the tour he had planned is now sacked. Teodros, who is of Ethiopian descent, and has never visited Ethiopia, says he still plans to be in Addis Ababa by the first of December.
In the mean time, much of this has ironically worked out in Teodros’ favor. He’s now staying with Seattle hip-hop producer Budo, who moved to New York a year ago, and is making plans to perform shows in New York and tour the East Coast over the next month.
He spent his first night in Brooklyn hanging out with Grynch, and Seattle’s Sportn’ Life Records family in addition to former Seattlites that are now based elsewhere.
