Lil Pump had his first taste of fame whilst still a teenager, but why is he famous?
Lil Pump is an American rapper who is famous for his music and reckless public persona. After releasing music independently through SoundCloud, Lil pump signed a recording contract with Warner Bros in June 2017 at the age of 16, and released the now infamous song ‘Gucci Gang’ a month later.
Read on to learn more how Lil Pump became so famous so quickly, and rise to popularity.
School Dropout turned SoundCloud Star
Born on August 17, 2000, Lil Pump was born and raised in Miami, Florida and grew up in project housing with his mother and older half-brother.
Whilst his brother is in medical school studying to be a doctor, Lil Pump’s school career was a repetitive cycle of enrollments and expulsions.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Lil Pump said, “girl, I took so much drugs,” adding “I’ve been kicked out of so many schools”.
With a taste for all the things his schooling tried to teach him against, Lil Pump’s school days were limited. He was kicked out of school in 7th grade for smoking weed but he was eventually kicked out of school, for the final time, at the age of 16.
According to the rapper, his final expulsion was for starting a riot which caused so much commotion that helicopters and K-9s attended the scene.
When asked by Clash in an interview why school wasn’t for him, Pump replied “cos just look at me. I got face tats and I’m a drug addict!”
Though school was a struggle for Pump, his early years brought him his lucrative friendship with SmokePurpp, whom he met when he was 13. The pair have both capitalized on their friendship, and it was Smokepurpp who got Pump into rapping.
In a joint interview about their rap beginnings, SmokePurpp said, “I had dropped a few songs, and then I was like yo, just, I just told him to do that shit. That he could do it. Then he just recorded at my crib”.
Whilst Pump originally wasn’t interested in breaking onto the rap scene, he quickly acquired a taste for success after freestyling over one of SmokePurpp’s tracks, which would be titled ‘Lil Pump’.
The success of the 2016 track encouraged the rapper to release more of his music on SoundCloud and he quickly gained recognition within the South Florida rap scene for his controversial lyrics, becoming famous in the booming world of online rap.
He considers himself to be instrumental to the success of the “SoundCloud Rapper” wave, along with artists like SmokePurpp and Lil Yachty.
‘Gucci Gang’
It wasn’t long before Lil Pump’s localized fame turned into viral stardom and he signed a record deal with Tha Lights Global, related to Warner Bros, in 2017, when he was just 16.
Many of his SoundCloud songs were rereleased following the deal, but the rapper was also ready to let the world hear his new content and he released his single ‘Gucci Gang’ in August 2017.
The song made it to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and cemented his fame, whilst dividing opinion.
Listen to the rapper’s song ‘Gucci Gang’ in the YouTube video below.
Building a Brand
Riding the wave of his success, Lil Pump and his team released his self-titled debut studio album’ in 2017, followed by his second album, ‘Harverd Dropout’, in 2019 which featured Kanye West and 2 Chainz.
Though the music is an undeniable aspect of his fame, Lip Pump has built a brand around his image and his reckless lifestyle, which features heavily in his lyrics.
His legal altercations, facial tattoos, drug use, public antics, use of weapons, and notoriously materialistic lifestyle have brought him hordes of fans and more than a few haters. Either way, Lil Pump is thriving.