Fetty Wap American Rapper With 9.2M Instagram Followers

Early life

Fetty Wap, whose legal name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, was born on 7 June 1991 in Paterson, New Jersey, and grew up in the city. He attended Eastside High School but left before graduating. He later filmed the video for one of his singles, "Wake Up", at the school.

Career

Maxwell began making music around 2013. He started as a rapper and then added singing to his style, saying he wanted to do something different. His stage name combines "Fetty", a slang word for money, with "Wap", added as a nod to the rapper Gucci Mane, whose alias is Guwop. Gucci Mane has been one of the artists he names as an influence, and he describes his own sound as "ignorant R&B".

His first single, "Trap Queen", was released in early 2014 and appeared on the mixtape Up Next that July. It attracted little notice until November 2014, after which it spread quickly. That month he signed a recording contract with 300 Entertainment, an imprint distributed through Atlantic Records. The song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2015 XXL included him in its Freshman Class.

During 2015 several more singles followed. "679", featuring Remy Boyz, reached the top ten of the Hot 100, peaking at number four. "My Way" also entered the top ten, and a remix featuring Drake was the version played on radio. In one week at the end of July 2015 he had three songs in the top twenty of the Hot 100, the first time a male rapper had done so since Eminem in 2013. His single "Again" also charted, and he became the first act in the history of the Hot Rap Songs chart to place his first four entries in the top ten at once.

His self-titled debut album, Fetty Wap, was released on 25 September 2015 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, with 129,000 equivalent album units. He afterwards issued two mixtapes for streaming, Coke Zoo with French Montana and ZOO 16: The Mixtape with Zoo Gang.

In 2016 he released the singles "Jimmy Choo", "Wake Up" and "Like a Star", the last featuring Nicki Minaj, and appeared on the Fifth Harmony single "All in My Head (Flex)". In November 2016 he put out the nineteen-track mixtape Zoovier. A mobile racing game based on his name was announced the same year. In 2017 he released the singles "Aye" and "Way You Are", the mixtape Lucky No. 7, and a guest part on "Feels Great" by Cheat Codes. In 2018 he released the EP For My Fans III: The Final Chapter and the mixtape Bruce Wayne, and a single with 6ix9ine and A Boogie wit da Hoodie called "Keke" entered the Hot 100. He signed with Tr3yway Entertainment that year, and in 2020 he released the mixtape Trap & B and the single "Firefly".

His second studio album, The Butterfly Effect, came out on 22 October 2021 through 300 Entertainment and RGF Productions. In November 2022 he released "Sweet Yamz", a recreation of the song "Yamz" by Masego and Devin Morrison, which became popular on TikTok. His third album, King Zoo, followed in November 2023, with a guest appearance from Coi Leray. "Again" returned to the Hot 100 in 2025 after renewed popularity on social media. In March 2026 he released the album Zavier, with 17 tracks and guests including Wiz Khalifa and G Herbo.

Recognition

Fetty Wap received two nominations at the 58th Grammy Awards. In 2016 he won the iHeartRadio Music Award for Best New Artist and the Billboard Music Award for Top New Artist.

Personal life

Fetty Wap is the father of six children. In October 2021 federal prosecutors charged him with conspiracy to distribute and possess controlled substances. He pleaded guilty in August 2022 and was sentenced in May 2023 to six years in prison. He was released in January 2026. He has also described a connection to Haitian culture and often wears the Haitian flag. On Instagram he had more than nine million followers as of October 2026, and his YouTube channel had about 4.4 million subscribers as of April 2025.