In the seventh grade, 21 Savage was banned permanently from every school in DeKalb County School District for gun possession.[34] This led him to begin attending schools around the Atlanta metropolitan area before being sent to a youth detention center.[35] After being released from the youth detention center, he completed eighth grade through an alternative program before finishing a semester of high school, but dropped out in his freshman year following multiple exclusions that he said "exhausted" him.[36] After dropping out, he joined a local street gang affiliated with the wider Bloods gang and became a full-time drug dealer,[4] mainly selling cannabis.[36] He also regularly took part in other criminal activities including robbery and car theft, although he was only arrested once after contraband was found in a car he was driving.[37] In 2011, when he was 19, his "right hand man" Larry was killed in a shootout.[36] In 2013, during an attempted robbery on his 21st birthday, 21 Savage was shot six times by rival gang members and his best friend Johnny was killed.[6][38]