On 2020's Savage Mode II, 21 Savage's collaborative album with Metro Boomin, the rapper says he knows his mother is proud of him.
On his new album, American Dream, she confirms it.
American Dream begins and ends not with academy-award winning actor Morgan Freeman the way Savage Mode II did, but with 21 Savage's mother Heather Carmillia Joseph.
"My dreams have always gone beyond the crossings of a pond," Joseph starts the album.
"As a mother every path I walked was for my son.
"Challenges were a part of the journey. And what I wanted was an after thought."
Joseph goes on to say her choices were not in vain.
"Dreams really do come true," she says towards the end of the album.
American Dream is the rapper's first solo album since 2018's I Am > I Was, which went to number one on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart and featured the song A Lot with J Cole, which won a Grammy for Best Rap song.
American Dream is quintessential 21 Savage. On the track Redrum, Savage throws in some pop culture references like "How Sway?" a common parlance adopted by those in the know after Kanye West challenged renowned hip hop journalist Sway Calloway in a 2013 interview.
The introspective Dark Days featuring Mariah the Scientist, urges children to "stay in school".
Other artists featured on American Dream include Doja Cat, Young Thug, Afrobeats superstar Burna Boy, Travis Scott, Brent Faiyaz (who performed a sold-out Australian tour this week) and Savage's long-time collaborator Metro Boomin.
The album is a soundtrack to Savage's debut film American Dream: The 21 Savage Story, which is set to be released on Independence Day in the United States and is directed by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Jamal Olori and Fam Udeorji.
A trailer for the film came out earlier this week.
It co-stars Savage, Glover and Caleb McLaughlin depicting three generations of Savage in the heat of a personal crisis.
Savage has been busy
Although this is Savage's first solo album since 2018, the artist has certainly been active in that time, releasing a 2022 joint album with Drake called Her Loss, and appearing as a featured artist on albums from DJ Khaled, Young Thug and Giggs.
Just to emphasise his ubiquitousness, Savage has been nominated for five Grammys this year.
His "American Dream" has not been without challenges, as his mother alludes to on the album.
When Savage was taken into custody on February 3, 2019, (Super Bowl Sunday) by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who said he was a UK national who had overstayed his visa, many of his fans learned for the first time that he was British.
People couldn't believe it and his distinct Atlanta accent and Southern drawl exacerbated their bewilderment.
The memes were, in a word, savage.
Some photoshopped him in with the royal family. Others in uniquely British settings. And the captions? Even 21 Savage had to laugh.
"Some of them was funny — I ain't gonna lie," he told the New York Times shortly after he was released from detention.
"I done been through way worse things in my life than somebody putting me on a meme. I been shot — what is a meme? A meme is nothing."
Savage remained in detention till February 13 that year.
It meant he missed the 61st annual Grammy Awards ceremony, where he was supposed to perform on stage with Post Malone, who he collaborates with on the Grammy-nominated song Rockstar.
Pop star Demi Lovato temporarily deleted her Twitter account after prompting backlash, including from some big names, for tweeting: "So far 21 savage memes have been my favorite part of the Super Bowl".
What is the true story of 21 Savage?
Born, Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, in London, Savage was raised in Atlanta from the age of seven, living much of his life as an undocumented immigrant.
His largely absent father's family immigrated to London from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. His mother is from East London, her family from Dominica in the Caribbean.
Celebrities rallied against his potential deportation and a possible decade-long ban from entering the United States, Post Malone and Kendrick Lamar among them.
Jay-Z said the arrest was an "absolute travesty", with Savage telling the podcast My Expert Opinion that the music mogul played a role in getting him out of detention.
"It made me who I am," Savage told the New York Times.
"I wouldn't write it no other way if I had the choice. If they said, 'Hey, you could start your life over and make yourself a citizen,' I wouldn't have never did it.
"I still want to go through this right here 'cause it made me who I am, it made me strong."
The rapper has since been issued a Green Card, and one of the first things he did was something he couldn't do in limbo – go overseas, performing with Drake in Canada, before booking a Europe tour, culminating in a London show.
'I'm just a rapper'
Savage told Rolling Stone in December that his music is "fiction as hell".
"Some of it be based off of real life, but a lot of it be creative stories."
He's been forced to defend his often violent lyrics after being targeted on X (formerly Twitter) when he appealed for peace on the streets.
He responded to people calling out his hypocrisy by emphasising that he's an entertainer.
The rapper's foundation, Leading By Example, seeks to provide financial literacy to underprivileged youth, while increasing their access to jobs and personal advancement.
In acknowledgement of his work in the community, the state of Georgia recognises December 21 as "21 Savage Day".
American Dream is available to stream on various platforms