His Royal Highness, Fetty Wap

11 February 2016 - 02:56 By Leonie Wagner

Prepare the throne for the "cash prince of hip-hop" 2016 - Fetty Wap.The Paterson, New Jersey, rapper took the top spot in Forbes' list of hip-hop cash princes - young rap artists who are most likely to make it as hip-hop stars.The list was put together by radio and TV personality Charlamagne Tha God, Atlantic Records chief Craig Kallman and three Forbes employees, and hip-hop artist Lovebug Starski, who picked 10 of the most promising rap acts of 2015.Reigning supreme was Fetty Wap, partly due to his slew of hits including Trap Queen, 679, Again and My Way. He also has two Grammy nominations.The 24-year-old, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, rose to fame after being discovered by an intern at the record label 300 in 2014.But it was only when he dropped his multiplatinum hit Trap Queen that he gained superstar status."It's the album that changed my life," Fetty Wap told Forbes.To make it onto the list the artists had to be classified as hip-hop acts, had to be under the age of 30 at the time the list was published, and should not have appeared on previous lists.Another criterion was a creative stage act.Two female rappers made the cut - Dej Loaf, whose YouTube hit Try Me went viral, with 40 million views, and Little Simz, a North London rapper dubbed by Kendrick Lamar as one of the "illest doing it right now".Other rappers on the list include Young Dolph, one of the only independent musicians to have multiple top 20 records from 2014 to 2016, followed by Joey Bada$$, Metro Boomin, Lil Dicky, Logic, Boi-1da and G-Eazy.But it was Fetty Wap who was the ultimate success story of 2015 as he went from being a relatively unknown rapper to having four songs on the US Billboard top 40.In an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show, Fetty Wap spoke about how in the beginning people doubted him."I told [them] it was going to happen in this exact way. I don't believe in doubt. I've never doubted myself," he told Noah...

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