Fetty Wap Talks His Meteoric Rise to Fame in Candid Interview
“I started off doing music like everybody else, as an outlet and to do something that wasn’t gonna have me end up in jail or dead.”
Having released his defining single “Trap Queen” last year to widespread critical acclaim, the 24-year-old father of two has undergone a rags-to-riches transformation since his subsequent meteoric rise to fame atop the 107 million SoundCloud plays and 266 million YouTube views that the song has garnered. Recently earning a title amongst the “Top 10 Most Googled Artists in the World,” the rapper talked to i-D about the banner year that 2015 has been for him, a period in which followup tracks 679, Again and My Way achieved the same kind of public fervor — with the latter being remixed by the likes of Drake — alongside buying his mom a house and the birth of his daughter. Read an excerpt below and find the full feature here.
Released in September 2015, the 24 year-old’s self-titled debut album went straight to number one in the Billboard charts cementing him among hip-hop’s hottest. And he does it with an almost elegant simplicity. His oeuvre doesn’t stray too far from the formula: he sings, he raps, and he piles on the ad-libs, 808 and autotune in equal measure. “I pay attention to my fans and what songs they love and react to. When you keep a close watch on what they gravitate towards, you see what works and what doesn’t,” says Fetty of his artistic approach. And people love it. Really, really love it. Fusion.net analysed Fetty’s recent debut and found 51 “1738”s, 35 mentions of his crew “Remy Boyz”, 43 “Sqwaaaaaas” and 253 “babys”. Has he seen this piece? He laughs, something he does often. “Nah, I don’t really care about that too much. That’s not something to keep count on. It’s my signature… it’s my brand. When you hear “Yeah baby” you automatically know that’s Fetty Wap, right? When you hear “1738”, you automatically know it’s Fetty Wap. So it’s working. There’s no overall message on this album. I’m not really a story-teller. People already know my story. And for those that don’t, I’m from the hood and I made it out. My music did that for me.”
