walking upstream…
Fetty Wap
photo: jules945 · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Fetty Wap
Fetty Wap (Willie Junior Maxwell II) is a rapper and singer from Paterson, New Jersey, whose rasped, half-sung hooks turned street narratives into pop anthems on the strength of 2014's "Trap Queen," "679," and "My Way." His self-titled 2015 debut album topped the Billboard 200 and helped popularize the melodic rap-sing hybrid — hooks belted in a raw, unpolished voice rather than rapped straight — that spread across hip-hop and R&B through the rest of the decade. After a 2023 federal drug-trafficking conviction and an early 2026 release from prison, he returned with the album "Zavier."
the sound in question
2014
Trap QueenFetty Wap
walk the tributaries ↓
Gucci Mane2000s · Trap / Hip hop
Fetty built his stage identity directly around Gucci Mane — the "Wap" half of his name is a tribute to Gucci's alias "Guwop" — and told Complex "Gucci Mane is my favorite artist... I watched him from when he first started with Chicken Talk to right now with Trap God." Gucci's loose, ad-lib-heavy trap cadence and hook-first songwriting carried directly into how Fetty built his own tracks around a repeated, sung hook.
listen: upstream & heresource: Complex ↗
2009
LemonadeGucci Mane
2015
My WayFetty Wap
listen forListen for the unhurried, half-sung pocket sitting just behind the beat and the plainspoken hood narrative on "My Way" — the same laid-back, hook-forward delivery Gucci Mane perfected on "Lemonade."
Jeezy2000s · Trap / Southern hip hop / Gangsta rap
Fetty told The Fader that his cousins in the South had him listening to "Gucci Mane, Young Jeezy, trap music, Lil Boosie, Slim Thug... Project Pat, Three Six Mafia, Juicy J" rather than "up-north rappers" growing up. Jeezy's gravelly, ad-lib-stacked hustler anthems are audible in the hyped, call-and-response hooks Fetty builds his own trap tracks around.
listen: upstream & heresource: The Fader ↗
2005
Soul SurvivorJeezy
2015
679Fetty Wap
listen forListen for the barked ad-libs punctuating the bars and the big, shouted hook on "679" — the same stadium-sized trap urgency Jeezy brought to "Soul Survivor."
Max B2000s · Hip hop / East Coast hip hop
Max B pioneered the melodic, off-key "wave" style of half-singing over rap beats years before Fetty's breakout. In 2026, discussing "BossDon" — their duet on Fetty's post-prison album "Zavier" — Fetty said he built the track by consciously chasing that sound: "I'm about to sound like Max B. I'm going to sound Max B and then I'm gonna make Max B sound like the old Max B."
listen: upstream & heresource: AP via KSAT ↗
2009
Quarantine (Take Your Breathe Away)Max B
2026
BossDonFetty Wap
listen forListen for the loose, vibrato-heavy croon riding over the beat rather than sitting tight in the pocket on "BossDon" — the same woozy, half-sung romanticism Max B used on "Quarantine (Take Your Breathe Away)."