The man seemed almost too good to be true.
In Paterson, one of the poorest cities in America, a suddenly-rich, home-grown pop star stepped forward as a community philanthropist.
Such was the image that the rapper with the stage name “Fetty Wap” wanted to project.
Today we know that image was a lie. Fetty Wap, now 31, was living a double life that reflected his dual names — Fetty Wap, the rapper-turned-do-good-community-activist, and Willie Junior Maxwell II, Fetty Wap’s legal name, a drug dealer now heading to a federal prison.
The downfall of Fetty Wap is a tragedy on many levels — for him, for his family, for those who believed in his sincerity and, ultimately, for the city he called home. But more broadly, this is also a story of how our culture all too easily embraces celebrity, no questions asked.
To understand this arc of sadness, let’s turn back the clock.
‘In love with the money’
In 2014, Maxwell, under the name Fetty Wap, scored a major rap hit with “Trap Queen,” a song in which he rapped about selling drugs and buying a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
“In love with the money,” Fetty Wap sang. “I ain’t never lettin’ go.”
The song was nominated for a Grammy and won awards from MTV, BET and Billboard. In a review, The New York Times praised “Trap Queen” as “shimmering and yelping and borderline whimsical.”
By the end of the summer of 2015, with “Trap Queen” still at the top of the charts, Fetty Wap announced he would play a free concert for Paterson students and give away backpacks and iPads.
“Without Paterson I wouldn’t be Fetty Wap,” he announced — an understatement if ever there was one.
‘I’m here for a reason’:Lil Tjay thanks fans in first post since Edgewater shooting
Paterson Mayor Joey Torres, who would end up in jail for illegally ordering city employees to renovate a warehouse owned by his relatives, called Fetty Wap’s concert a “homecoming welcoming party” and “a true rags-to-riches story, a gentleman who never lost sight of what he wanted to do in life, and persevered.”
Torres’ praise was yet another understatement. But such was the start of the love affair between Paterson and Fetty Wap.
Over the next three years, Fetty Wap presented himself as something of a civic savior, not to mention a rising music star. His face appeared in a car racing video game. He strutted down a runway during New York City’s Fashion Week. Paterson and other communities in New Jersey and New York rolled out the welcome mat.
A few months after the free concert, which included members of two of Paterson’s most violent gangs pledging a truce and sitting together, Fetty Wap gave away several hundred free Thanksgiving turkeys to city residents. Three days earlier, he appeared on a balcony at the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus and tossed $2,000 to shoppers.
In September 2017, Fetty Wap showed up in Hackensack, giving away cash to kids on the street. The TMZ tabloid-like digital video platform called him “Summer Santa Claus.”
Six months later, Fetty Wap, who dropped out of Paterson’s Eastside High School and says his family was forced to rely on food stamps during his youth in the city, was being compared to the Easter Bunny after he handed out gift cards to city residents just in time for them to buy new outfits and food for the Easter holiday.
“Anything I can do to help especially with my hometown I’m going to always be there,” he told NorthJersey.com. “Coming from not having anything to being able to do a lot more than what I did growing up to be able to live a different lifestyle, it kind of really empowered me to help as many people as I could.”
More from Mike Kelly:Why won’t police call for a ban on assault rifles and body armor?
The gift card handouts even propelled Fetty Wap to a place in celebrity-media nirvana. The New York Post’s Page Six canonized him by declaring that he “is no stranger to giving back.”
Everything was not so rosy, however. Indeed,…
Read More: Paterson NJ rapper’s secret life catches up with him