Six seconds.
That's all it took for Jake Paul to make it big on Vine.
In 2016, Paul landed the role of Dirk on Disney Channel's Bizaardvark, and by August 2017,
his personal YouTube channel boasted nearly 10 million subscribers and more than 2 billion
views.
But in the wake of his groundbreaking success, trouble is brewing.
Here's the untold truth about this social media sensation.
Fluke Vine
Paul didn't set out to become a social media celeb.
When he was 10 years old, he "wanted to go into the NFL," telling People in 2016 that
his dad gifted him and his brother a video camera to film their games.
But instead of focusing their energy on football, the brothers started arguing about who could
use it to make a better video — and they decided to settle it on Vine.
Paul said, "Within six months we were making more money than our parents."
SEAL dreams
Before his online stardom, the Ohio native reportedly wanted to serve his country
During an online Q&A with Product Hunt in 2016, Paul revealed what he originally wanted
to do in life: "Before Vine I was actually training to be a Navy SEAL.
I still would like to do it."
"Have you ever shot a gun/Yes Sargeant/Have you ever shot at someone/No Sargeant"
In 2016 he did do some, quote "special forces ranger training," but Paul has yet to officially
join the SEAL team.
Teenage millionaire
According to CNBC, Paul's enormous social media success had him "pulling in seven figures"
by 2016.
The then-19-year-old said the secret to his success was staying flexible and exploring
as many opportunities as possible.
He told the news channel:
"It's just about translating your content onto other platforms.
Now Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat are super popular and so I just create content
on those platforms and grow an audience there."
And he did the math, saying, "As you get more and more popular and start to build a brand
name for yourself in the space, you start working with big Fortune 500 companies, merchandising
deals, you can tour.
There are lots of ways to monetize.
But if you have millions of fans, and you can convert even five percent of them to pay
for something of yours, you are in the seven-figure range."
The next Dr. Dre
Once Paul secured his own slice of fame, he set his sights on helping others, telling
People in 2016, "I want to be the Dr. Dre of social media.
I want to take my success and replicate it with other artists."
He started by inviting fellow social media stars from around the world to live with him,
in a $17,000 per month mansion in Los Angeles — or, as he refers to it, an "incubator
for social media talent."
Dubbed Team 10, Paul told Forbes, "We take people who have a lot of potential and teach
them how to make content, produce it, etc.
Then we move them into the house and we all collaborate.
We've taken people with 5,000 followers and they've literally had millions of followers
in a month."
Trouble in the 'hood
Although Paul's fans may dream of living next door, his real-life neighbors in West Hollywood
may disagree.
According to a July 2017 report in NPR, "Residents of the street where Paul rents a large house
are meeting with police and city officials to review code requirements — and could
file a class-action lawsuit that seeks to declare Paul a public nuisance."
Apparently, Paul and his pals use his property as a set for all their viral pranks and wild
antics.
One neighbor told KTLA 5:
"We're families here, and we're more than happy to have them live here if they're respectful
of their neighbors, but they're not."
When the channel sent a reporter to his home, Paul quipped:
"Honestly it's terrible it's a bad situation.
I feel bad for them, for sure, [but] there's nothing we can do.
The Jake Paulers are the strongest army out there.
Dab."
Disney defense
As Paul clashed with his neighbors, he suddenly parted ways with the Disney Channel, home
of his hit series Bizaardvark, right in the middle of the show's second season.
Taking to Twitter, Paul confirmed the split.
"Long story short…my team, Disney Channel, and I have come to the agreement it's finally
time for me to move on from the Disney family and Bizaardvark.
I love my cast mates and will continue to support Disney but I have outgrown the channel
and feel it's time to move forward with my career."
Rumor has it Paul was fired, but his rep told Page Six that wasn't the case, saying, "They
couldn't have been nicer about it.
Now that he's not on the show he can go on auditions for more mature roles."
Race relations
Shortly after he parted ways with Disney, Paul was featured in GQ's feature "The New
Rules for Making It In Hollywood."
In the story, the 20-year-old brainstorms ideas with a movie producer about his potential
film debut, saying, "Maybe similarly to Get Out, where, like, the message of the whole
thing is like, basically, that racism is terrible."
But just a couple of weeks later, Paul was caught making insensitive comments to a foreign-born
fan, during a prank.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Kyskastan originally."
"It sounds like you're just going to blow someone up"
"Thank you so much."
"Send the nuke!"
Soon after the incident, "#Jake Paul Is Over Party" began trending on Twitter, as folks
slammed the social media star for his comments.
Viral beef
In August 2017, Paul shared a video with fans titled "My assistant was assaulted…"
In the clip, Paul's assistant claims she crossed paths with YouTuber FaZe Banks, at Warwick
club in L.A., and he stuck out his arm and clotheslined her, bruising her neck as he
tried to pull her toward him.
FaZe wasted no time filming an emotional response to disprove the accusations.
"I've never seen this person ever.
I don't remember having any interaction with this person"
"There's a possibility that I bumped into this girl"
"obviously this s--- wasn't intentional, if it happened at all."
It was then, that Max Beaumont, a member of Paul's Team 10, quit the crew and came forward
with an eye-witness account of the alleged assault, in an interview with FaZe.
"I do not believe that, you intentionally assaulted this girl"
"I do not believe..
The way I saw you that night, I don't see how it's a possibility that you went from
this nice guy who came over and gave me a hug to someone who started swinging at her
afterward."
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