He remained in ICE custody at the Irwin County Detention Center in South Georgia until Feb. 13, when he was released on $100,000 bond. The next day, he was in a hotel room in a suburb north of Atlanta, surrounded by several members of his legal team. Dressed in somber all-black, he spoke at length about his childhood, his time in detention, the Grammy Awards ceremony he missed and how growing up without legal status shaped the person he became. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Do you remember first arriving here when you were young?

Yeah, everything was like, bigger. I come from the poor side of London. My grandma house is real skinny. So when we first moved here, we was living in the hood still, but it was, like, way bigger. The toilet size, the bathroom size, it was just different. But I fell in love with it. It’s all I know.

Did you have a British accent?

Yeah, I had a accent, ’cause my first day of school they was making fun of me so I beat somebody up, and they was calling me “taekwondo kid.” My mama whupped me, she made me stay in the house. So I know I had a accent, but I been here 20 years — I don’t know what happened to it.

Do you remember when you became aware that your status wasn’t settled?

Probably like the age when you start to get your driver’s license. I couldn’t never take driver’s ed, I couldn’t never go get a job. About that age.

Was it something you wanted to get taken care of?

It felt impossible. It got to the point where I just learned to live without it. ’Cause I still ain’t got it, I’m 26, and I’m rich. So, just learned to live without it.