Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Remember Fetty Wap? He Lost Everything

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

Fetty Wap rocketed to global superstardom in 2015 when his breakout melodic hip-hop anthem "Trap Queen" reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and achieved diamond certification. Despite pioneering a distinct, chart-topping sound in the mid-2010s, his career faced a severe derailment following a 2021 arrest for federal drug conspiracy charges.

Football is back. Every game, every weekend, Draft King's Sportsbook has you covered. Every snap matters. Every comeback can shift the game. And every fourth quarter moment can change everything. Follow the action with Draft Kings, the number one sports book for live betting.

Built to keep up with the speed of sports, built with Canadian sports fans in mind. Draft Kings brings the action together in one easy-to-use app. Follow the biggest matchups, build your parlays, and explore live betting markets as the game develops. So you can focus on the first. football and enjoy the action with confidence.

Download the Draft Kings app today and see what everyone is talking about. Draft Kings, the number one sports book for live betting. In partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call Connects Ontario. 1866-531-260-19 and over. Physically present in Ontario. Eligibility and restrictions apply.

See Draftkings.com slash sportsbook for details. Please play responsibly. Number one sports book for live betting based on available live market data. This family is on the brink of Civil War. Mobland, the hit original series is now streaming on Paramount Plus. We are the Hurricanes. Don't know the Earth? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. Do you want to step up the ladder?

I won't call him dead. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren. Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! I'll give you more! Moblad, new season is now streaming on Paramount Plus. Remember Fetty Wop? Did he really make tens of millions of dollars and then lose it all? How do you do that? So the story, of course, starts with Fetty, and Fetty is about 22 during this time, living in Patterson, New Jersey, and it's 2013.

So at this point, Fetty is trying to be a rapper. But the dude is broke, and he's kind of homeless, and he's like couch surfing at friends' houses. And he had glaucoma as a baby, so he's only got one eye. so he's got that working against him as well. But then one day, everything changes for him. Because he meets the owner of a small record label. And this

owner really believes in him and he gives him a bit of money so that he's not homeless anymore and so that Fetty can focus on making music full time. And now that his life is funded, Fetty starts making music full time, like making mixtapes and whatnot. And by 2014,

he puts out a song called Trap Queen and it starts getting traction on the internet, and soon the song blows the hell up. And by 2015, Trap Queen and Fetty are suddenly incredibly popular. Like this song is everywhere, and Fetty is performing all around the world. And Trap Queen goes 12 times platinum, which I guess is going diamond. It also gets over a billion streams on Spotify. And now he's collaborating with big artists like Young Thug and Gucci Main and Drake.

And Kanye West brings him out on stage at a concert. And Taylor Swift does as well. And soon, he has other hits too. So needless to say, he's making a ton of money now. According to him, he's making a minimum of around $100,000 a day during this time. And of course, he is spending the shit out of this money. Like when he travels, instead of renting hotel rooms, he keeps apartments in different areas of the country.

Like he has four apartments in New Jersey, two in Miami, a couple in Los Angeles. He also has a collection of 30 luxury cars personally for himself, you know, like Ferraris and Lamborghinis and BMWs and stuff. But despite all this good fortune he's run into, Feddy actually has a problem. He really likes helping people out, even if it doesn't benefit him.

Like if you're anywhere in Feddy's orbit, he is helping you out, usually by spending money on you. Like he buys a five-bedroom house, for his parents. He pays the rent for his siblings apartments. He pays the leases on their cars. He pays for people's tuition. He even buys whole ass businesses for some of them so that they can be employed. And he doesn't just stop there with helping family. He spends money on all his friends as well. One time he spends $1,500 on pairs of Balman jeans for about 30 of his friends. He also buys them

expensive jewelry, including gold chains, worth $2.5 million. And at one point, he starts buying expensive cars for his friends. And eventually he ends up buying cars for pretty much anyone who asks. And if that isn't generous enough, he gives money to his fans, too. Like one time he walks into a mall and he throws $2,000 in cash up in the air for his fans to catch. And all this fame and excessive spending goes on for about two or maybe three years. And so it's now 2018. And this is where things start going really bad for Fetty. Because at this point in his career, the hype has kind of died down and his songs aren't really blowing up like they once were. And so he tries to put out new music, but he's having issues with his label and some contract issues and his new music keeps getting

delayed. So now, money isn't coming in the way it once was. And not only that, while he's been busy spending all this money, helping people out, the people he trusted to manage his funds were actively taking advantage of him. According to him, his longtime booking and tour manager was stealing from him. Plus, he owes a ton of money for other stuff, like multiple ongoing luxury housing leases that he can no longer afford, a few lawsuits, and of course, taxes. And to make it worse, one day that same year, he goes to the bank to withdraw some cash, and he discovers that his bank accounts have been frozen due to some legal judgments he has against him. So now, Fetty is essentially broke.

And the bad thing is, he still has bills to pay, and he still has people relying on him. Like, he has nine kids with seven different women to support. I'm sure they all rely on him. So he desperately needs a new way to make the kind of money, that he was making before. And in 2019, he finally finds a way because he partners with a bicoastal, multi-million dollar drug ring

based out of Long Island. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns

about your gambling or someone close to you, Peace contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGEM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. New York, and this drug ring traffics massive quantities of all kinds of drugs, like cocaine and heroin and fentanyl, and they trafficked them from the West Coast over to Suffolk County in New York. And there, the drugs are then distributed through lower-level dealers in New Jersey and Long Island. And if everything goes according to plan, there is a lot of money to be made from this. So, what's Fettie's role going to be in all this?

Well, he and his goons take the bulk quantities of drugs, have them broken up into smaller quantities, and then distributed to mid-level drug dealers. And so, the drugs are bought and transported across the country, concealed in U.S. Postal Service packages and hidden in compartments and vehicles, and when the drugs reach Suffolk County, Fettie's guys start distributing them. And this scheme actually works. The drugs are sold, the money comes back, and nobody gets caught. So they do it again and again and again.

And so eventually it's 2020. And it's COVID lockdown. And there are no concerts or shows for Feddy to perform or anything like that. So this drug distribution thing is the perfect money-making gig for him. But then one day, boom, the Fed's. bus the larger trafficking operation, and they discover about $1.5 million in cash, cocaine, heroin, and a ton of fentanyl pills, and some guns. And so, bam, they arrest some of the people involved.

And so Fetty's new business venture has to stop completely. Then, bam, they start arresting his crew one by one over a month. And eventually, in 2021, Fetti is backstage at the Rolling Loud Music Festival, and he's about to go on stage and perform, and suddenly the feds show up and bam, they arrest him. Here's his mugshot. Then about a week goes by, and Fetty gets out on bail while he waits for his trial.

But of course, his release comes with some conditions. Specifically, he's not allowed to possess a firearm or any other kind of weapon. So all he has to do is stay out of trouble until he has his trial. But of course, that's not what he does. and that is where things get really bad for him. So in 2021, his four-year-old daughter, sadly, passes away from cardiac arrhythmia. Then, a few months later, an unidentified guy, reportedly, gets on Instagram and decides to ragebait Fetty. And this guy posts the picture of Fetty's four-year-old daughter with the caption saying,

I'm happy she's dead because her father is a rat. And as you can imagine, this pisses Fetty off real bad. So he somehow gets the guy's number. Maybe they knew each other, I'm not sure. But Fetty gets his number and he FaceTimes him and he confronts him. And the two guys, they start arguing and like calling each other a rat. And Fetty gets so mad at this that he pulls out a gun and he starts threatening to kill the guy. But what Fetty doesn't know is that the guy is recording the entire thing.

And after the call, he sends that recording to the police. And as you could already guess, this whole incident violates the conditions of his release. And so a few days after that, bam, the FBI arrests him again. And eventually he takes a plea deal and he gets sentenced to six years in prison. But on the positive side is he's out now and he put out a new album recently and he's touring again. And from the interviews I've seen, it seems like he's. really trying to get his life together. So good for him.