Fetty Wap Artistfacts

June 7, 1990
Wille Maxwell was raised in a housing project in Paterson, New Jersey. He was nicknamed "Fetty" (slang for money) as he was known for always having a lot of cash. "Wap" was added to the end of the name to in tribute to his idol Gucci Mane (Gucci Mane's nickname is "Guwop").
Fetty Wap developed glaucoma when he was a child. The doctors were unable to save his left eye and instead fitted him with an ocular prosthesis. "When I was little, I got into a little accident and it gave me congenital glaucoma in both of my eyes," he explained. But, "the doctors saved one, so I was blessed to [still] have my vision."
He was teased because of his eye problems "When I was younger it used to bother me a lot," Fetty Wap told Noisey. "Not bother physically, but when people would say how I looked, I fought a lot. I used to fight a whole lot. Now it doesn't bother me at all."
Fetty Wap includes his New Jersey crew, Remy Boyz 1738, on many of his tracks. The squad was named after a premium Rémy Martin cognac that was established in 1738.
Fetty Wap's breakthrough single, "Trap Queen," was the first time that he sung rather than rapped on a song.
Fetty Wap used to wear a prosthetic eye when he was little, but now he feels secure enough to not care what people think about how he looks. "It was really when I started making music that I stopped wearing it," he told New York Magazine. "People around my city just started getting used to it, and I just started to be myself. I started to feel regular and like I didn't have to turn my face to take a picture because I didn't like how I looked. I could look straight into the camera. Every little insecurity I had was gone because I didn't have to try to look a certain way. This is the way I look and I feel comfortable with it."
When Fetty Wap reached 10th grade at Eastside High School, the institute immortalized in the 1989 film Lean on Me, he dropped out and began selling drugs.

"I felt like I'd rather get money than an education," he told Billboard magazine. "When I did have people to listen to, I didn't listen to them anyway. All we knew was drug-dealing, getting ran down by the police and 'How much we gonna smoke today?'"
Fetty Wap never had a pair of Jordans until his 22nd birthday when he copped the Taxi 12s. He told Maxim in August 2015 that he now buys a new pair of Jordans every single day.
Fetty hates flying, He'll drive to an out of state show if he can rather than taking the plane.
Fetty Wap was arrested in October 2021 at a New York stadium on charges that he took part in a conspiracy to smuggle large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other drugs across state lines. The "Trap Queen" rapper pleaded guilty the following August to a conspiracy drug charge. Wap admitted he'd been part of a drug trafficking ring that moved drugs from the West Coast to Long Island.

During an appearance in a New York court on May 24, 2023, Fetty Wap was sentenced to six years in federal jail. On January 7, 2026, he was released three years early.

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