One of things that I enjoy about writing about certain personalities is finding out about people I haven’t really heard of. There are so many out there known for their work in a variety of fields and industries. And I often have no idea who they are or what they do. The process of getting to know through researching and writing is my favorite part. That’s the only way that I could ever learn more about them, to be honest.
NEXT: How To Be Rich Like Yelawolf
I listen to music. But I haven’t really expanded my taste to other genres and styles. I have sort of settled into the sound that I like. Sometimes I do try to listen to a bunch of other artists. There are times where listening to bunch of random playlists leads me to find out about an artist whose work I started to enjoy. Still, that doesn’t really happen a lot.
Despite having written about different rappers of different ages, I still haven’t really gotten that much into the genre. There just isn’t really anything in the genre that has hooked me yet, unfortunately. I have come to terms that maybe the genre isn’t for me. But that doesn’t mean I dislike it though. I can still appreciate the effort being to put into the songs.
I didn’t really know of Yelawolf until I started writing this post. There are just so many artists that I didn’t know existed until now. Since I don’t listen to the genre all that much, it doesn’t feel as bad for not knowing a certain artist. But, yeah, it’s always a surprise to find out about an artist who has been making music for about a decade.
There wasn’t much that I could find about Yelawolf’s life growing up. Often when I write about musicians, there is at least that one moment in their life growing up that lead to them to pursue a career in music. The one thing that I see a lot of is when a certain artist got introduced to a certain type of music by their parents. I think that those kinds of moments are pivotal for any person’s life.
Yelawolf is the stage name of Michael Wayne Atha. He was born in Gadsden, Alabama but spent most of his childhood growing up in Antioch, Tennessee. He and his family moved a lot when he was a kid. But it seems that Antioch was were the roots settled in. Somehow, studying in a school that’s close to apartment projects lead him to make sense of hip-hop.
Though, to be clear, Yelawolf’s mom had dated a sound engineer when he was younger. That sort of lead to artists like Run DMC going to the house that Yelawolf and his mom stayed in after a local show had ended. I guess Yelawolf’s mom was the biggest part with regards to his exposure to different kinds of music.
It seemed that Yelawolf struggled a bit financially when he reached adulthood. He and his girlfriend at the time were trying to just make it through the day along with their baby. At the point, he had joined a reality competition hosted by Missy Elliott. But he got eliminated. He got signed to a major label and managed to release one song with them. There were plans to release an album but it fizzled out.
Still, that didn’t really stop Yelawolf from creating music. In 2009, he produced a mixtape called Trunk Muzik. That mixtape lead him to gain an online following and a major record deal with Interscope Records. He pretty much gained traction after that. He re-released the mixtape with Interscope and it did really well.
Eventually, he signed a record deal with Eminem’s record label. He pretty much continued making new music, releasing albums and EPs and all that stuff. He had a pretty steady career, all things considered. By 2014, he had released his third studio album “Love Story.” Though, it took him almost two years from the start of production for it to its release.
There have been a lot of things that had happened since then. Apparently, he got into a bit of controversy for defending the Confederate flag. He has since retracted is stance on it. During one of his tours, he got into a bit of an altercation with lead him to have a mental breakdown. But he managed to get some help and continued making music. His latest release was in 2021 and at that point, he had a net worth of $4,500,000.
