LOS ANGELES — Bob Odenkirk has known he wanted to immortalize the playful poems he created with his children since they were first scribbled down years ago.

The Emmy-nominated actor always assumed “Zilot & Other Important Rhymes,” hitting shelves Tuesday, would be a project he completed once his son and daughter had long been out of the house. “Maybe when I was a grandpa,” he mused.

But when the entire family hunkered down under the same roof for the better part of 2020, he and his daughter Erin, the younger of the two siblings, wanted to create something that fosters wonder and joy in children in the midst of abundant despair.

“We tried to make the most of the limitations, the situation. But you know, that was a hard time for everyone in the country,” Odenkirk recalled of the coronavirus pandemic. “Erin’s an illustrator and an artist. And I thought, ‘Let’s just get to work on that book.’”

So they dusted off the whimsical rhymes they had collaborated on nearly two decades ago. Odenkirk added some new ones and his daughter, who was remotely finishing up at the Pratt Institute, enveloped her bedroom wall with her father’s poems as she sought inspiration for accompanying artwork during study breaks.

“I’d put them on my closet door right by my desk. And I had this wall of pages,” Erin, now 22, recalled. “Every day, I’d pull like two or three down and I’d try to do a sketch.”

The duo looks back fondly on that time of collaboration. But they both admit the process was not without challenges.

“There’s tension there. I mean, think of any business partner or any project partner you’ve ever had,” the “ Better Call Saul ” star said. “You’re trying to make choices and decisions together. And in this case, you kind of can’t leave, both because there’s a pandemic and because you’re in a family together.”

Overall, however, they say the experience brought them closer and helped them get to know each other in new ways.

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LOS ANGELES — Rapper 21 Savage can now legally travel outside the United States and plans to make his international performance in his native London.

Savage’s lawyer, Charles Kuck, told The Associated Press in a statement Friday that his client has officially become a permanent U.S. resident and may now go overseas. He cleared a major traveling hurdle after being taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Georgia in 2019.

Kuck said the Grammy winner followed “all applicable immigration laws since his initial detention by ICE.”

“His immigration court proceedings have now been terminated and he is a lawful permanent resident of the United States with the freedom to travel internationally,” Kuck said.

Savage, 30, whose given name is She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, spent 10 days in a detention center in southern Georgia before his release. He was arrested in a targeted operation over his visa, which expired in 2006.

The Atlanta-based rapper said he had no idea what a visa was when his mother brought him to the U.S. at 7 years old. He said in a 2019 interview with the AP that immigrants like him who lived in America illegally as children should automatically become U.S. citizens.

Savage said the visa application process discourages many immigrants who don’t have documents because it “hangs over your head forever.”

Savage made his announcement about returning to London via social media but did not give details.

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NEW YORK — Maxwell has been celebrated and admired for forging his own path and going against the popular music grain ever since he set the R&B world on fire with his 1996 debut album, “Urban Hang Suite.” And while fans are awaiting the release of his upcoming studio album, “blacksummers’NIGHT,” Maxwell revealed he’s working on a follow-up project that will include songs from his teenage years.

“We’re going to move into some stuff that happened before I was even 17,” he said. “(It will also include) lots of songs from the 90s that never got on the albums…it’s a different time.”

“(It’s) stuff that I used to do when I was 16, 15, when I had pretty much barely any equipment. And it’s interesting to see your first steps — well, I wouldn’t say first steps. I would say crawling.”

He’s currently promoting Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite Cruise, a four-night Norwegian Pearl ocean voyage that will take place Feb. 10-14, 2024.

“It’s wild — I’m doing a cruise, bro!” he laughed.

He have two performances, and Robert Glasper and Ledisi will also hit the stage during the cruise, as will Musiq Soulchild, Leela James, Sabrina Claudio and Gallant.

Maxwell serenaded sold-out crowds last month at Los Angeles’s Hollywood Bowl and is preparing for a four-show stint at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center next week with the National Symphony Orchestra.