What's Happenin'

Despite a badly broken leg, Fetty Wap is still going strong.

Words: Sidney Madden

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of of XXL Magazine, on stands now.

A 24-year-old from Paterson, N.J. is living the rap dream right now and no one can stop him. It’s not that anyone even wants to. Fetty Wap is just so appealing, and there’s no denying that he knows how to make hit songs. Last August, Fetty broke a Billboard record when he became the first artist to have four singles in the top 10 of the Hot Rap Songs chart simultaneously. The rapper also set another record, an accomplishment shared only with The Beatles, when his first three career singles (“Trap Queen,” “My Way” and “679”) landed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Fetty then dropped his self-titled debut album in September 2015, which landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but the young rhyme slinger barely got to enjoy his success. On Sept. 28, he was in a motorcycle accident and broke his leg in three places. After taking a short break to recuperate, the 2015 XXL Freshman hit the road to tour while also starting to work on his second album. XXL spoke with Fetty about his big breakout, the unfortunate accident and what he’s got on deck.

XXL: What do you think has been the biggest change for you since being on the 2015 XXL Freshman cover?

Fetty Wap: Everything has changed, really. I don’t really know how to feel about that. Everything’s kind of moving faster. You know, people don’t think, “Oh Fetty Wap, a one-hit wonder” anymore, Fetty Wap a million. I’m just enjoying all the success. [But] I feel the same way, you know? It hasn’t changed me.

How do you feel about the response to your self-titled debut album?

I don’t really know. Around that time I was excited, but I was in the accident so... you know what I mean? I was happy that I had an album out, then it was kind of messed up how I got into the accident right after that and fucked up my leg.

So what happened with the accident and how are you doing now?

I just feel like I hit the breaks too slow, it happens. My way of looking at it was, everybody fall, but everybody not Fetty Wap, you know what I’m saying? And I kept going because I got my fans. People fall and hurt themselves way worse than I did so I’m blessed that I only broke my leg in three places rather than losing a leg. I think I can live with that. Recently, I started walking on my own. Even though I should’ve, I didn’t do the physical therapy. I wasn’t about it, at that time. When I go onstage, that’s my physical therapy.

Are you still riding bikes?

Yeah, I got my babies with me on the tour!

After the album dropped and the accident, you kind of disappeared. Did you feel like you needed a break? No pun in intended.

Really, yeah, that was my break. Kind of a forced break. I had to chill, but I want to say probably the second week I was able to walk I was doing shows again. So I didn’t really get like a break-break. It was just like, “aight, I’m alright.”

What’s coming up for you this year besides a U.K. tour?

It’s really about when it’s time for me to drop another album; it’s going to come. I’m always ready. Whenever they ready for it, I’m going to give it to them. As of now, I’m just stacking the songs up, seeing what we got. We having everything ready so when it’s time to go, we don’t gotta get ready. I think, probably this year, I’m trying to do a lot of hooks and ship them out. I’ve been really trying to create this wave of different sounds and just hand them out, and see who like it. You know what I mean? Make some art with this music. Let people choose what they want. Come this summer, there’s going be a whole a lot of Fetty Wap or Future and Fetty Wap. We’ll see what happens.

Check out more from XXL’s Spring 2016 issue including Big Sean’s cover story, the Letter from the Editor, Macklemore’s thoughts on White privilege, Kodak Black’s Show & Prove interview, Doin’ Lines with Boosie BadAzz, Flatbush Zombies’ serious comic addiction, the producer behind Desiigner’s hit “Panda,” Plies’ career boost thanks to Instagram, Anderson .Paak's Show & Prove, Lira Galore's Eye Candy interview, Quality Control Music's domination and more.