Before Guapdad would drop his debut album “Dior Deposits” and be featured on Dreamville’s
“Revenge Of The Dreamers” album.
Before Guapdad would collab with Chance The Rapper, J. Cole, E-40, G-Eazy, Tory Lanez,
6lack, Denzel Curry and more.
Before he would lose a bet with Drake during
the NBA Finals:
Before he would get into a fight with Russ and the two would go back and forth online
about what truly happened:
And before Guapdad would have the best Durags in the game:
Guapdad4000 has had a long road to fame. Today, he is friends with some of the biggest rappers
in the game and is one of the hottest new acts.
But he came from a household where both of his parents were barely out of middle school
when they had him… and they were both in and out of jail. Guapdad turned to scamming
to provide for his family and ended up becoming popular online because of his hilarious personality.
The raps came next and his talent was put on full display for the world!
What's going on guys? It’s your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career
of Guapdad 4000 prior to fame, here for you of course on Before They Were Famous. There
is a whole new wave of artists coming into the game and we are doing our best to keep
up. Last week we dropped a video on the Tik Tok girl Ashnikko and our Rod Wave video has
been doing big numbers. As always I need you guys to tell me who to document next – that's
via the comments down below and over on social media. Tweet at me, you'll be surprised how
quickly I get back to ya'll. Aright, let's get into this video. It looks like the writers
gave me a trivia questions,
What is Guapdad’s deadliest battle weapon?
I’m not obviously talking about a real battle, but place your guesses in the comments below.
Alright, let’s get into the show!
Guapdad 4000 was born Akeem Hayes on July 27, 1992 in Oakland, California, speaking
more specifically on this he stated.
Looking at some throwback photos.I have been a weirdo all my life , I was born on a different
frequency than the rest of you. My papa had a mouth full of gold teeth preaching game
to me while I watch anime.
No wonder why I love Asian/islander girls , my Lola introduced me to that beauty, i
come from beautiful people
He ain't lying:
Guapdad has filipino and black ancestry but he struggled with his identity early on, he
told Revolt:
In my first early years I really didn't even identify as black. I didn't have no connection
to like my black side.
It was like a culture shock coming into like maturity dealing with like all the s*** that
goes on the world
especially like racism and bigotry and things of that nature just against black people as
a whole.
And then, on the opposite, dealing with the sort of inbred hatred for darker skin complexions
in the filipino world.
It's also a thing that I had to deal with so it was crazy for me to find, like, love
for my own self.
He ended by saying:
It's cool, I love filipino women
Young Akeem attended Martin Luthar King middle school:
Then he bounced around during his junior and senior years between a few different schools.
He says that he always did really well in school. But there was a lot going on in his
home life. Guapdad’s mom was only 14 when she had him and his dad was just 16 years
old. Both of his parents were in and out of prison, and at certain points, both were locked
up at the same time.
His parents were both in his life but it was a while before his father was able to be a
real dad to him. Guapdad says he doesn’t blame his dad because he was so young and
learned a lot from watching the situation play out. So Guapdad’s grandparents took
care of him, and he shares how grateful he is for his Lola every chance he gets. Shoutout
to Lola.
Times were hard while growing up, and with siblings and grandparents to take care of,
that’s when Guapdad allegedly turned to scamming. That included shoplifting, credit
card swiping and selling stolen goods to make money. He told The Hundreds in an interview:
The feeling of successfully completing a scam is actually hella crazy because it’s a
rush.
You feel like you just—you’re f***ing Danny Ocean, Ocean’s Eleven, baby, we to
the top!
He talks about it in his music a lot. In fact, he's even boasted about it online citing himself
as lead singer, Adam Scamvene of the popular hit making band Scamroon 5.
He said in another interview:
I started scamming out of necessity. Nobody wakes up and says I'm finna scam a million
people
those people are usually evil. I'm not an evil dude but I'm not a hero: I'm an anti-hero.
But all of this rap stuff could have never happened because he almost got into the pimp
game:
Luckily, he stuck to scamming and making music. Growing up, Guapdad was influenced by artists
like Dom Kennedy, Pharrell, Kanye and Bay Area legend Mac Dre.
His first ever song was recorded in the 6th grade with his music teacher Mr. Cuevas. He
says the song was trash, but it was a start. From there, he began rapping and eventually
making his own beats. He also began experimenting with Autotune and claims to have watched a
lot of T-Pain tutorials to learn how the program works.
Besides music, Guapadad is actually a really good artist… As in illustrations and painting.
Here are some of his sketches from 5 years back:
Guapdad was a big anime fan and loved pokemon He says of his taste:
This is the age of weirdos, and I'm a complete strange guy.
I've got a lot of urban appeal because I'm from West Oakland, but my taste is 100-percent
Asian
in terms of media and cuisine because I grew up in a Filipino and black household,
and I've always been obsessed with Japan because of the cartoons and manga.
Guapdad actually applied to the prestigious University of Berkley and got accepted, but
things weren’t so simple based on his past:
After high school, Guapdad began organizing local parties. In around 2014, Guapdad was
also hanging out with fellow Bay-Area artist Lamsu and they began working together in the
studio
He even co-wrote the hook for this song:
Guapdad was featuring on songs and going under the rap name YBKeem at the time. But his hilarious
stories and videos helped him grow a following on Myspace and Tumblr.
And his following moved over to Instagram after hilarious videos like this one where
he enjoyed some Hennessy during his 24th bday party getting showered in bills while listening
to the Pokemon theme song.
He began tatting up his body and building up his image:
Then he started going by Guapdaddy. IAMSU featured on one of Guapdad’s early songs
in 2015:
The song got 20,000 plays on soundcloud: He was working on music with Steven Cannon
as well
And at that point, he was selling beats for $150 and was performing shows locally:
In 2016, he worked with YungPinch
Guapdad moved from Oakland to LA while looking for an opportunity in the music business.
He told XXL that moving to LA was the most important moment for him emotionally. When
he moved out there he had nothing but $20 in his pocket. He says the biggest difference
between the two is:
The main difference between the LA and the Bay is the Bay Area is a hub for intellect
and creativity.
LA is the hub for industry and execution.
While he kept working on music, it was his personality on Instagram that was getting
him noticed. People were just loving Guapdad being himself:
By summer of 2017, he had 40k followers on Instagram. He was able to find a studio in
LA that he lived in while recording his debut project. Then on December 6, 2017, he released
the mixtape “Scamboy Color.”
He signed with Sam Lancaster and TWNSHP management who helped him take his brand to the next
level. But it was a mixture of Guapdad’s music and his personality that made him really
blow up. He is a likeable guy. Just ask Wale, Big Sean, Chance The Rapper, J.I.D. J. Cole
or any of the other big rappers who he has friendships with. I mean, even Drake showed
love to Guapdad and the two had a real bet going. And we even found a picture of him
and Kendrick Lamar from all the way back in 2013!
One with Erykah Badu in 2014:
We found an old video of him talking about how he almost got into a fight with some big
J. Cole fans:
But who would have thought that years later, those same J. Cole fans would help take Guapdad’s
career to the next level.
One of the biggest breaks for Guapdad came from one of those relationships when he was
invited by J.Cole to the Dreamville sessions in Atlanta.
This consisted of the best rappers and producers in the game gathered in one isolated place
together with the goal of making a joint mixtape together. Guapdad was able to secure spots
on 3 songs, making him one of the most featured artists on the project.
While recording the hook from the standout song “Costa Rica,” Guapdad told Revolt
that he was super dr**k:
I was looking at my Instagram and SoundCloud analytics, it tells you where n****s is at.
I’m like, ‘Whoa! I got fans in Costa Rica.’ But, I sung it how I sung the hook. Then, it was
over.
When talking about the whole process, in an interview, Guapdad4000 said:
It was life-changing. The best musical learning experience ever.
The album went number one in the country and also went platinum. Guapdad kept releasing
singles to build his buzz. He dropped “Flossin,” “Scammin,” “First Things First,” “Prada
Process,” and “Gucci Pajamas” with Chance The Rapper and Charlie Wilson.
Guapdad claims the two instantly became best friends, and based on his track-record, it
doesn’t seem too far of a stretch. On October 25, 2019, he released his debut
album “Dior Deposits.” The album including some big features from Chance, Tory Lanez,
6lack, G-Eazy, Buddy and E-40.
You also shouldn’t test him in a Yugio battle, because he has MULTIPLE
Blue Eyes White Dragon Yugio Cards:
And there you have Guapdad’s deadliest battle weapon. But as for the rest of the story,
we’ll have to wait and see because this is Before They Were Famous.
Thanks guys for checking out this video, two more for you down below. Keep sending in your
requests for who to do next & I'll see you guys in another video.