Maria Puente

USA TODAY

The American-born artist formerly known as Mos Def was formally charged with using a fake passport in South Africa, where he and his family have been living illegally since 2014, South African officials said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, he's enlisted Kanye West to help defend him, posting a rambling audio message on West's website announcing his retirement from show business and asserting that he is the victim of a murky political conspiracy in Africa.

"I’m retiring from the musical recording industry ... and also from Hollywood effective immediately," he said in the audio message. "I am releasing my final album this year and that’s that."

Now going by the name Yasiin Bey, the rapper-actor was ordered to appear in court on March 8, but his family was ordered to leave the country by the end of January, Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni told reporters in Joannesburg.

Bey has been charged with violations of South African immigration laws, including using a false identity, using an unrecognized travel document known as a "world passport," and helping his family stay in the country illegally.

Apleni said Bey is out on bail in Cape Town, where he's been living, but his family, whose visas expired in 2014, must leave South Africa by Jan. 29 or be deported.

Born Dante Smith in New York, Bey, 42, was arrested and detained last week after he tried to leave South Africa using a document he described as a "world passport."

Mos Def arrested in South Africa, told to leave the country

In his audio message, which appears as a black screen on West's website with the words "A message from Yasiin Bey," Bey said there is nothing fake about a "world passport," that he's been using it for years.

"They are making false claims against me, a world passport is not a fictitious document," he said in his audio. "It's been accepted here in South Africa on numerous occasions...as early as 1996 and as late as 2013."

Bey's audio included a freestyle rap he called No More Parties in S.A. (alluding to West's just-released song, No More Parties in L.A.) in which he defended himself and assailed South African authorities.

"I've committed no crime, why is the state wasting my time, they must be out of their minds," he intoned. He said he just wanted to leave South Africa and return home (but America is not his home), and that he and his family are prepared to exit South Africa "never to return again."

Later in the audio, he insisted "I have reason to believe and suspect political motivations behind the way I’m being treated," although he did not explain who might be behind it or why.

"I am not a liar," he said. "I've made no false claims, I have not misrepresented myself."

Contributing: The Associated Press