Before FunnyMike would drop hilarious songs like “Small Wee Wee” which has over 9
million views, “Told On Myself,” which has over 6.5 million views, and “Mama Whooped
My Ass” which has close to 7 million views
Before FunnyMike would become a cast member on Nick Cannon’s MTV Show Wild N’ Out
And Before he would have more than 145k followers on Twitter, over 1 million followers on Facebook
close to 3.5 million subscribers and over 5.3 million followers on Instagram on YouTube
at the time of this recording
Before FunnyMike would take on the Moniker 22 Savage which would get him into some online
beef with 21 Savage
Last time we documented this man’s rise to fame, he was going by the name 22 Savage
which was an ultimate troll move and enough to make 21 Savage send a few death threats
at the young then aspiring entertainer.
Fast forward the clock two years later and Funny Mike has made a big name for himself
all on his own.
FunnyMike turned an online comedy career into a semi-joking rap career into a fully serious
rap career and flipped it back into a successful career as a rapper, comedian, writer and entertainer
on YouTube.
But in between all that, he was facing a murder charge... and he's since become a dad.
This is one of the more interesting stories we've got to tell here on this channel but
there have been lot's of updates and new details so let's get into it.
What’s going on guys?
It’s your boy Michael McCrudden taking you through the life and career of FunnyMike prior
to fame, here for you on Before They Were Famous.
The original 22 Savage Before They Were Famous video has become one of the most viewed on
this channel and there have been lot's of requests for an update.
Some other recent drops you might like include Lil Tecca and did an update on YG.
Check those out after this one but for now I got a trivia question for you guys:
“Which important person in his life shares a birthday with FunnyMike?”
Place your guesses down below and stick around for the answer at the end of the video.
FunnyMike wasn’t born Mike at all, his real name is MacArthur Dean Johnson and he was
born on October 8, 1996 in Baton Rouge Louisiana.
Early on, MacArthur was inspired by artists like Boosie and Kevin.
But not so much Baton Rouge native Kevin Gates, he wanted to be more like Kevin Hart.
Although before attempting to impersonate 21 Savage, there was apparently a plan from
Mike to impersonate Kevin Gate’s career.
On the website of the record label that Mike would eventually sign to, they listed his
upcoming mixtape title as almost the exact same name as the tape that Gates had out at
the time.
So maybe he had this plan all along.
But we’ll get there.
MacArthur knew he wanted to be a famous entertainer, but didn’t know how he was going to make
it all happen.
Although he would rap for fun, at first, he thought his dream would come true through
comedy.
He started posting funny videos up onto a few different social media accounts that have
since been deleted.
They included the names Mighty Mike, Funny Ass Mike, Girl He Funny, Mac2Funny.
But his first viral video was on Facebook and YouTube called “FireCracker Challenge
where he was going by the name Lil Mac…
He was also posting songs under the name Lil Mac at the time.
And while he gained a small local fan base, his vine and Instagram videos started to blow
up and he gained a real following under the names “Mighty Mike” and “Funny Ass Mike.”
He attended Baker High School and there, everyone knew about his comedy and he was a popular
guy.
He even made a song for his high school under the rap name Lil Mac called “BHS Anthem”
and he performed it at a school pep rally.
MacArthur graduated from high school and continued to grow his online following but his comedy
career was put on hold when he was sent to Juvenile detention.
He was released on bond and with a new found appreciation for his life, he began ramping
up his comedy, doing pranks and skits with his high school friend Wings.
The two became a duo “Wings and Mike.”
At the time when asked about his future goals, he said:
But before he could do that, he signed to “Travis James Entertainment” as a comedy
act.
At first, they didn’t even know about his music career.
But shortly afterwards, he released his single “Hit That Bit For The Gram.”
Using Mighty Mike as his rap name, the single gained over 400k views online and had many
fans excited for more.
That had major labels calling and wanting to sign him to a deal.
But it was in May of 2016 that things took a turn for the worse once again when MacArthur
was charged with second degree murder for an altercation with another man.
According to police reports, the two got into an altercation outside of a super market while
the victim was passing out party fliers in the parking lot.
Johnson admitted to shooting the victim claiming it was in self-defense.
His bond was placed at 370k but somehow Mike got the money, and eventually, he was released.
So he moved on to his next venture.
It’s still unclear how he sourced the bail money but Mike says that he had money prior
to rap.
Either way, Mike was looking for a way to get put on quickly.
And it just so happened that at the time, a rapper by the name of 21 Savage was becoming
a massive star.
Now, it may not have been obvious out of context, but besides the knife tattoo, Mike looks a
lot like 21 Savage.
What we didn't know the first time round was that Mike teamed up with a PR company to plot
about how they could make his career go viral.
Mike came up with the idea to unapologetically imitate one of the most poppin’ rappers
out.
After a freestyle online of him saying “it’s 22, not no 21” went viral,
he decided to take on a new rap moniker and see how far he could take it.
The PR company who he was working with said:
Our publicity company loves the bold, brave, scandalous, outspoken, dangerous, cutting-edge
and controversial artists...
22 Savage came up with an amazing idea and it’s great to be able to help light up the
Internet with it.
This kid is a star, point blank.
The moniker, was 22 Savage.
You probably remember seeing his videos at the time, or at least memes with him in it.
He released a song with the same name as 21’s hit at the time “No Heart,” and the video
went pretty viral.
The video now has over 2.6 million views, along with 25K thumbs up and 12k thumbs down.
Mike completely took 21’s flow, his tone and even his ad libs.
But he clearly knew what he was doing.
He dropped three separate diss tracks towards 21 and they went viral with the song “Ain’t
No 21” getting nearly 10 million views on WorldstarHipHop’s YouTube Channel.
He was getting so much traction that 22 even got a response from 21 himself.
And even 50 Cent was trying to set up a boxing match between 21 and 22 Savage for the namesake.
Eventually, Mike decided to drop the name 22 and instead went by Young 22 for a while.
We can’t say for sure if it was because of threats from Savage’s team, but based
on his lyrics and interviews, I feel like 21 Savage is not a guy you want to be constantly
beefing with.
Since then, Mike has seen a lot of success online dropping some hilarious songs, dance
challenges, vlogs, online shows and being an overall entertaining personality on his
YouTube channel.
In 2018, FunnyMike joined the cast of Wild N’ Out for seasons 11 and 12, and he recently
had a baby girl.
It seems like he’s a great dad.
In terms of the future, he says that he wants to do more Stand Up Comedy, and create short
films, and based on his career trajectory, it seems like everything he tries, he’ll
see success in.
He actually shares the same birthday as his boss on Wild N’ Out Nick Cannon.
There you have the answer to your question from the beginning of the video.
That’s all for this one though, as always I’m Michael McCrudden.
Be sure to subscribe and check out a couple of our other videos while you’re here.
Let us know who to document next by hitting us up in the comments down below and I’ll
see you in the next video.