Fetty Wap says his time behind bars wasn’t spent on a music comeback; he was ready for a career change.
The “Trap Queen” artist has been out of prison for a month after serving three years on a drug trafficking conspiracy conviction, and while he was inside, he turned his focus toward education. In a clip from his upcoming episode on the “Tamron Hall Show,” he revealed what he was doing instead of rapping.
“I got my GED. I took a few HVAC courses. I did a few things,” he said.
Fetty, whose name is Willie Junior Maxwell II, explained that he doesn’t write his songs down, so he wasn’t concerned with new music while he was incarcerated. Tamron Hall followed up on his choice to pivot careers and asked if he thought that he would be a hip-hop star coming out of prison, to which he replied, “No.”
“So your backup plan was going to be Fetty the HVAC guy?” Hall asked.
“Yeah, I’m so serious too,” Fetty answered. Expanding on how he came to that decision in prison, he said, “You meet a lot of people that… they had legitimate businesses and making good amount of money,” he said. “So I’m like, well, he making, like, rapper money. I’ma try that out.”
Following his release last month, Fetty released a statement about his plans moving forward, and they didn’t necessarily include music. The “679” rapper, whose eponymous 2015 debut album “Fetty Wap” topped the Billboard chart in its first week of release, instead shared plans to do work in his community and create opportunities for the next generation.
“Right now, my focus is on giving back through my community initiatives and foundation, supporting at-risk young children by expanding access to education, early tech skills, and vision care for young kids and students so they can show up as their best selves,” his statement said. “I’m committed to moving forward with purpose and making a meaningful impact where it matters most.”
