Places on the Forbes list of most influential, most powerful, etc. are not reserved only for actors, or royal families, or even leaders in business; rappers take essential places in pop culture, and they have a truly significant role in the society in general. They are today’s royalty, and often they live a dream life.
Among them, there is a rapper called Fetty Waps whose real name is Willie Maxwell II, and he is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from Paterson, United States of America.
This is the rapper who says that success for him is to have the ability to empower others and that he wanted to go big because he wanted to provide for his kids.
Fetty, in one interview, explained that he named himself name “Fetty” since that is slang for money. And the other part of his name came from the “Wap” from Alabama rapper Gucci Mane, since he is Fattys idol and he mentioned this many times in interviews.
His music even till this day is very much inspired by artists such as Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy.
He is, in 2019, worth around 8 million dollars, he is currently signed to Atlantic Recording Corporation (this record company exists more than 60 years and artists like Kardi B, Bruno Mars, and Ed Sheeran all have contracts with this Corporation).
His career began in 2014 when his soon to be hit single ‘Trap Queen’ was released, and it hit Billboard hot 100 at number 2, but eventually became platinum single.
He established himself as an accomplished rapper and was able to gain more fame and popularity, via social media, and other ways (partnership and sponsorships).
Approximately, his Net Worth is around 8 million, and some claim that his assets are getting even bigger, as his popularity grows.
This musician belongs to the new kind of rappers who rule social media in all of its forms – this medium rules all others, from communicating with his fans to touching many these via social media and also gaining money from merchandising products using them.
He describes his work as a mixture of singing and rapping, and he says that he belongs to some genre of RnB.
Early years
Willie Maxwell II is the name that you cannot associate with the rap name “Fetty Wap”, but this is the actual name of this famous rapper, who was born in Paterson, New Jersey on the 7th of June, 1991.
There is one story that is connected to his childhood, in a sense that it describes his main feature in body, his eyes. This interesting thing about his life is that he is born with one health problem – he had glaucoma (this is a disease which damages the optic nerve and results in vision impairment) in his eyes, and even doctors told him that he would lose his left eye. He did lose his eye and doctors had to put artificial one, but as many successful people do, he also made this trait as a thing, his unique characteristic that he is known for.
In one interview, Fetty Wap spoke about his growing up and school, and he stated that he was suspended from his Eastside High School – this was one of the interesting stories that come to the public.
He started his professional musical career not so long ago, in 2013, but in a short period of time, this rapper made a fantastic success and recognition. This was the year where he released his first single; this song gains popularity in 2014 when it obtained a lot of attention from other rappers and successful producers in the industry.
Fetty Wap often uses the flag of Haiti in honor of his daughter’s grandmother who passed away, and in general Haitian culture is a real inspiration for him. Often in interviews, he says that he is in love with this culture since it can bring him unity that he desires, because he did not grow from love and stability.
Career development
He got interested in music way back in 2013 and decided that he wants to be a musician, a rapper and singer; in this sense, he started his career slowly and built it gradually – his debut single “Trap Queen” was released in early 2014 and become extremely popular in November of the same year.
He is still famous for this song, it is his ID, so to speak, and one more exciting thing to add here is the fact that “Trap Queen” was downloaded more than 3 million times, just in the USA, and this number rise in other countries. It was also estimated that this single had over 600 million on-demand streams online.
Now, there is one interesting trivia that is related to his first single that made him popular – in one interview, as he stated that this song is dedicated to his lover at that time. He said in another interview that this was the girl that he broke up when she moved away to study in another city or state.
Trap Queen is hit that opens up with the ad-lib “Remy Boyz / 1738” – the name given after a premium Rémy Martin cognac.
One interesting fact is that this song has been played more than 130 million times on SoundCloud and has become platinum. Fatty Wap also spoke in one interview that he recorded, and not many people know this, is that he had recorded two songs before ‘Trap Queen’. His idea is to record something that is not usual rap sing, and the Trap Queen got that something for him.
After the success of his hit single, Fatty Wap has signed a record deal with the “300 Entertainment”, a company that was founded by Kevin Liles, Roger Gold, Lyor Cohen and Todd Moscowitz. The distribution deal was signed with Atlantic Records.
His second single with the 679 was released on the 29th of June, 2015, and its video has its premiere on YouTube in May of the same year. Later on, 679 reached at number four in the Hot 100 top 10.
The third single soon followed, it was called “My May”, it was very successful, and it got on second place in Billboard Hot 100. One interesting fact is that Drake himself remixed this song, and it was very popular, and still is.
Fatty Wap then in the summer of 2015 collaborated with many famous artists, like Eminem and Lil Wayne.
Fetty Wap became the 1st male rapper to occupy the top 20 spots with 3 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 – he has one other connection to the Eminem, both occupy the Billboard Hot 100 on 20 spots, but Eminem did this in 2013. Additionally, Fetty Wap became the 1st male rapper in 4 years to have concurrent singles reach the top 10 of the same chart. This was achieved by rapper Lil Wayne way back in 2011.
His fourth single titled “Again” helped him be the first rapper in the Hot Rap Songs chart’s history to chart in the top 10 with four entries.
As far as his debut album goes, it was released on the 25th of September, 2015. This album made its debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, after which he realised very successful mixtapes, called “Coke Zoo” and “Zoo 16”.
He collaborates with so many interesting, innovating and renowned artists – Choo Biggz, Dylie Dollas, J.Y., Baauer, Steve Stylez, Audrey Rose, DJ SpinKing, Rich the Kid, Natalie La Rose, and Yalee are just some of them.
Fetty released his next single on the 5th of February, 2016, titled “Jimmy Choo” (you can see that he plays with all things that are related to money, wealth, luxury, etc.).
Then next in August 2016 he released single called “Make You Feel Good”, and then “Like a Star”, which features Nicki Minaj, and another one called “Way You Are” featuring Monty.
In 2016 Fatty Wap was featured on the Fifth Harmony single, All in My Head.
His next mixtape was named “Zoovier”, which included 19 tracks and was released on the 21st of November, 2016. Fetty Wap also published extended play on the 19th of January, 2018. This play had the title “For My Fans III: The Final Chapter”. In June of that same year, Fatty released a mixtape titled “Bruce Wayne”.
Fetty Wap was nominated for 6 times for his debut single, “Trap Queen” and won two of those nominations – these awards included Artist To Watch in MTV Music Video Awards, and the other prize is Most-Played Video of the Year in MC100 Award.
He also won Best New Artist by iHeartRadio Music Awards, Who Blew up Awards by BET Hip Hop Awards, and also his awards included Top New Artist by Billboard Music Award.
Fetty Wap also got two nominations in 58th Grammy Awards.
Personal life
Fetty Wap is the father of 7 children; the first baby was born in 2011- its name is Aydin Zoovier, and he had her with Ariel Resse, his girlfriend from childhood.
He has six more children, and they are Eliza ZaZa Zaviera, who was born in 2015, with Lehzae Zeona. Then in 2016 baby Amani with Elaynna Parker. The same year Khari was born from a relationship with Masika Kalysha, then Lauren was born in 2016 an Aliya in 2018 with his former lover, Alexis Skyy.
Additionally, n 2018 his lover Lezhae Zeona gave birth to his seventh child, a baby boy, Zy.
He appeared on the 3rd season on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, which documented his difficult relationship with Masika Kalysha; and there are talks that he will star in one more season where he will record his tense relationship with Alexis Sky.
Fetty Wap said that his children are his biggest inspiration and that for any significant success, you really do have to have a lot of faith in what you do, or you will never be able to make it.
He wanted to become rich so that he can provide a better life for his children, and we can say that with 8 million dollars he made it.
In his personal life, Fetty Wap is very connected to his manager Mark, and in numerous interviews, he stated that this is the man who sat him down and explained the value of money.
This was really important at the moment when the rapper had an accident and did not perform for a while. This was the moment when he learns to invest so that he has in the future.
Earnings
As far as his earning go, Fetty Wap gained even more money from singles, different collaborations, etc. He also was successful in the stock market, where he earned a lot of money.
Fetty Wap had invested $1.3 million, and now thanks to the increase of the company’s share, it is worth his approximately $20 million. He says that he should thank his manager, who helps him also in managing money.
He was a good son, and he gave his mother a new house, and his admiration for his mother was seen in the price of the home that cost thousands of dollars if not even more.
Also, his residency is a rented mansion that cost $2.1 million. He has numerous luxury cars, and he stated that he does not know how many cars he has, but he likes to buy the newest and most expensive models.
On social media, Fetty Wap has many followers, only on YouTube; this famous rapper has over 3 million subscribers, and it is said that the billions of views bring this rapper millions of dollars.
His Instagram account has 5.8 million followers, while his Twitter has 759k followers.
In 2016, he made the Forbes list, most powerful 30 over 30.
Quick summary
Full name: Willie Maxwell II
Date of birth: 7th of June, 1991.
Birthplace: Paterson, United States of America
Age: 28
Profession: rapper and singer
Height: 6 feet 1 inch
Weight: 77kg
Net Worth: $8 Million