The month of February was a very interesting month for Hip Hop rappers in the United States. This is because of the multiple arrests and accusations that have been made against some of the biggest names in the industry.

21 Savage, Lil Baby, Blueface, Bow Wow, and YNW Melly have either  landed in jail, been accused of crimes that took place recently, or, in a couple of cases, been charged for incidents in the past. Why are all these rappers getting arrested you may ask? Some believe it is the work of the “Hip Hop Police” and the rappers are being targeted for a hidden agenda, while others believe that the rappers did in fact commit crimes and it is their illegal activity that has caused them to be in trouble.

On the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, 21 Savage, born as She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, was arrested along with his cousin, another rapper named Young Nudy by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Savage was arrested on charges of illegal immigration and was threatened with deportation. According to The Guardian, Savage was allegedly born in the UK, but legally came to America at the age of seven.

ICE claimed that he had an outstanding charge of drug possession from 2014, which is why he was arrested. Savage claims that the case was dismissed, and coincidentally ICE only took actions when he name dropped them during his performance on the The Tonight Show . The possibility that ICE had an agenda based on Savage’s name drop during the performance stirred the controversy as people began to piece together other instances of rappers being arrested.

Another interesting case is the incarceration of rapper Blueface, who was arrested on February 2nd. According to a report made by TMZ, while Blueface was walking in downtown L.A with his friends, the police received word about rappers in the area carrying a “Large amount of cash”, and having a lot of “Jewelry.” As soon as police pulled up, Blueface and his entourage fled the scene and threw their guns away. People were concerned because of robberies in the area by gang members, and cops were worried the rappers were easy targets. This is fishy because it makes you wonder what’s really going on in the industry, and on the streets.