21 Savage had the honor of being the musical guest for the Feb. 24 live taping of “Saturday Night Live.” Though he could have commanded the stage all on his own, which he did for “redrum,” he also opted to share the spotlight with Summer Walker and Brent Faiyaz, who are featured on “prove it” and “should’ve wore a bonnet,” respectively.
Each of the tracks came from his latest album, american dream, which was released on Jan. 12. Additional features include Mariah the Scientist, Burna Boy and his frequent collaborator Metro Boomin, to name a few. It marked his first solo effort in five years and debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart.
“To me, it’s his best album. You know the whole thing about the story about the controversy [where] he’s really from London, they play into the whole thing. His mother does the intro, it feels very cinematic,” said Elliott Wilson as he joined “The Joe Budden Podcast” hosts in praising the 15-track effort last month.
As previously reported by REVOLT, to promote the project, Savage teased that his life story was getting a movie treatment when he shared a poster and trailer for an american dream film. It starred “Stranger Things” actor Caleb McLaughlin as a younger version of the emcee and Donald Glover as an adult version.
However, when the rapper appeared on the “Club Shay Shay” podcast on Jan. 24, he put an end to speculation about the movie release. “That was a parody,” he told Shannon Sharpe. The NFL great reassured him that his real life was worthy of the big screen despite the hoax.
“It’s the American dream. You hear about this all the time, people migrating to America, and you’re an American success story… Very tough upbringing, a single parent. You had love and you could’ve gone down this path, and you did for a period of time, but somehow you come back down the straight and narrow, and here we are. America loves success stories," said Sharpe.
For now, though, the possibility of a biopic is not on Savage’s to-do list. “I feel like it could be one day, they’re gonna hate on it now though… They’re gonna be like ‘Why the f**k 21 Savage deserve a movie about him for?’” he said.
In the meantime, check out his “SNL” performances below.