Read the Story on the 56-Day Incarceration of Future's DJ in Dubai

In an interview with The FADER, Future‘s DJ Esco recalls to them his recent 56-day incarceration in Dubai for possessing 15 grams of marijuana at the airport. Originally set to perform with Future at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, an event also attended by Kim Kardashian, Prince Harry and the Spice Girls, he ended up staying at a prison where few others spoke English. Although he was intently focused to get out, Esco tried getting the most out of the experience by meeting a Taliban legend, learning some Islam and befriending a warden who later helped with facilitate his release. Read the entire story here and check for an excerpt from the fascinating story below.

In the jail it’s two sides. There’s the Arabic side and the other side is predominantly African, and it’s like a war between both sides. But I could go on both sides ’cause I wasn’t neither. When I first moved in, both sides were tryna see who was gonna get the American. And I’m like, I know I’m gonna be cool with them Africans over there, but I need to make sure I’m cool with the Arabic side too. We had one dude in there who’d been in the Taliban, and he was celebrated. He got caught because he fell asleep when he was supposed to be detonating a tank. He was waiting so long that he fell asleep, and the U.S. found him with this bomb in his hand and he said he got tortured by the CIA for 40-something days. With no clothes on, in the cold. And he never gave no names, so the U.S. let him go. This was his little legend. All of the people there were so far from what I’ve ever known. People carrying kilos of coke in their stomach. Stuff I wouldn’t even imagine doing, these people are doing to try to make it. These folks was living crazy, but I learned from them. Like, there’s a difference between North and South Pakistan. I didn’t know that in Cameroon they speak French. You learn about Islam. In prison they pray five times a day. They just put me on. I talked to everyone about their government and their language. Like, while I’m here, I got to figure it out.