Fetty Wap was one of the hottest stars in the rap game at one time
after Trap Queen went viral back in 2014.
But now the rapper is facing the possibility of life in prison
after police arrested him along with five other men,
right before performing at Rolling Loud in New York.
Here’s what happened...
On Thursday, October 28th,
Fetty Wap was scheduled to perform at the Rolling Loud festival
at Citi Field in Queens, New York.
But before he went on stage, he got arrested by the FBI
on federal drug charges.
According to legal documents from TMZ,
Fetty and five other men were all arrested on charges of distributing
more than 100 kilos of coke, crack, heroin, and fentanyl
all across Long Island and New Jersey.
Police say the drugs were bought on the West Coast and then smuggled back East
using stash spots inside of used USPS vehicles.
Police records also claim that during their investigation,
they found over $1.5 million dollars in cash,
16 keys of cocaine, 2 keys of heroin,
as well as fentanyl pills, and multiple guns.
All of the men involved, including Fetty, are facing a minimum of 10 years
up to life in prison if convicted.
Fetty Wap’s lawyer Navarro Grey told the press that
“We pray this is all just a big misunderstanding and hope that Fetty will be released soon
so we can clear things up as soon as possible."
According to Timothy D. Sini, the district attorney of Suffolk County, New York,
the defendants used Southern Long Island as their base of operations
to run a multi-million-dollar interstate drug ring.
He accused Fetty and his crew of being wholesale drug dealers
who trafficked millions of dollars worth of narcotics across state lines
and sold them to smaller dealers who flipped the drugs on the street.
Charges against three other men in the case were already filed back in June 2020.
The DEA announced charges against 23-year-old Anthony Cyntje
of Passaic, a former New Jersey Corrections officer,
as well as 26-year-old Brian Sullivan of Lake Grove, New York,
and 47-year-old Anthony Leonardi of Coram, NY.
Charges were also brought against two other men on the same day as Fetty Wap,
including 26-year-old Robert Leonardi,
the brother of one of the men previously arrested, and 26-year-old Kavaughn Wiggins.
Prosecutors say that the Leonardi brothers, along with Sullivan and Wiggins
set up the purchase and shipment of the drugs from the West Coast.
They accuse Fetty Wap of acting as a kilogram-level redistributor.
Anthony Cyntje is accused of moving the cocaine to New Jersey to be distributed.
Police believe that Brian Sullivan and Anthony Leonardi’s son James Sosa
were running the operation.
They Both got arrested last year and charged with working as major drug traffickers.
As of right now, it’s not exactly clear what Fetty Wap’s involvement was.
Based on the news reports
it sounds like Fetty was getting keys from the West
and then used his connections in the streets to flip it to local dealers.
But for now, it’s hard to tell how much he was really involved.
Fetty Wap has been pretty low key the past few years,
despite his success early on in his career.
He was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey.
As a child, he developed glaucoma in both eyes after an accident
and the doctor could only save one.
So, he lost his left eye,
which later gave him a unique look.
He went to Eastside High School in Paterson but dropped out to chase a music career.
He started rapping and taking music seriously around 2013.
At first, he was just rapping
but later switched to singing because he wanted to stand out.
He always had the nickname Fetty cuz he was a well-known hustler in his hood
and was always trying to get money.
He threw the Wap on the end when he started rapping,
which was a tribute to Gucci Mane, who called himself Guwop.
He dropped his breakout hit "Trap Queen" in early 2014.
The song was the lead single from his debut mixtape Up Next.
Trap Queen ain’t take off right away, but by the end of 2014
it racked up millions of plays on SoundCloud.
This secured him a deal with 300 Entertainment
with distribution through Atlantic Records in November 2014.
Fetty was included on the XXL 2015 Freshman Class list,
with rappers like Vince Staples, Shy Glizzy, and Goldlink.
After that, he dropped his next single 679
featuring members of his Remy Boyz crew Monte and P Dice.
The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100,
his second highest-charting single after Trap Queen.
Fetty would later fall out with P-Dice over a beef with another Paterson rapper named Tax G.
Tax G claimed Fetty jacked his style by rocking blond dreadlocks
that looked just like his.
The rapper called Fetty a copycat, but his beef was really with P-Dice.
So, Tax G said if Fetty kicked P Dice out of the group, they could squash the beef.
Fetty ended up kicking Dice out of the group
but says it wasn’t just because of the beef with Tax G.
He said that Dice only wanted to come around for big shows
and wasn’t putting in the work to build the Remy Boyz brand.
When 679 dropped he wanted an even split for their performances together,
even though Fetty Wap was the one bringing in all the fans.
So Fetty kicked him out of the group
and his verse was not featured on the album version of the song.
But the internal beef ain’t slow down his grind.
In July 2015, he dropped his third single My Way,
which peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song got remixed by Drake, which gave it a major boost.
So, it seemed like Fetty Wap was taking over the rap game
and every single he dropped did massive numbers.
He was the first male artist with three songs in Top 20 spots on Billboard
since Eminem set the record in 2013.
So, for a while, it seemed like Fetty Wap couldn’t be stopped
and was on his way to being one of the biggest stars of this generation.
But when you blow up overnight and experience so much success early on in your career,
it’s hard to keep up that momentum forever.
Fetty dropped his debut commercial album Fetty Wap in September 2015.
The album debuted at #1 on Billboard because it was supported
by four chart topping singles - Trap Queen, 679, My Way, and Again.
A lot of fans said the album lacked versatility
and it seemed like Fetty was just making different versions of the same song over and over.
But it was still a commercial success selling 129,000 albums
and earning Fetty two Grammy nominations.
A few days after the album dropped, Fetty got into a motorcycle accident
that almost killed him after being hit head-on by a car driving in the opposite direction.
Paramedics treated him at the scene,
and he was brought to the hospital in stable condition.
Over the years, he continued to do successful features.
In 2015, he was featured on the Lil Dicky Song Save Dat Money, with Rich Homie Quan.
Fetty also teamed up with pop group 5th Harmony in 2016
for the track All in My Head (Flex), which also climbed to the top of charts.
But Fetty’s solo songs didn’t have the same kind of impact as his early hits.
Around 1:20 am on November 2nd, 2017
Fetty was arrested after being pulled over on the highway in Brooklyn.
A cop saw him going over 100 miles per hour in a 2012 Mercedes.
He was charged with drunk driving, reckless endangerment,
aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle,
illegally changing lanes and drag racing.
He later said that the charges were exaggerated,
but he did have two shots of Cognac before driving.
It was 2 am and there were no cars on the highway,
so he decided to drive home.
But other than that, Fetty has kept a low profile over the last few years.
He’s continued to drop music and recently released his second studio album,
the Butterfly Effect on October 22nd, just a week before he got arrested.
It’s been 6 years since he dropped his first album
and this project was supposed to be a comeback album for him.
But now it seems like Fetty Wap got himself caught up in a legal situation
that could end it all.
He‘s facing some pretty serious charges
and the cops been going hard cracking down on street-affiliated rappers
who's living a double life.
As of now, they haven’t granted Fetty a bond
and he’s currently behind bars waiting for the case to be processed.
More info will probably come out once the rapper sees a judge,
so stay posted for updates.