Fetty Wap came up with seven songs for his new album in jail – but he didn’t write any of them down.
The 34-year-old singer and rapper was sentenced to six years in prison for drug trafficking in May 2023, but he was freed early in January, and last week he dropped a new record, Zavier, just two months after his release.
Fetty has told how he sang songs over and over again in his head during his time in jail to remember them.
Speaking to The Fader, he said: “The whole purpose of this album is to show that I can be a great artist.
“I’m not the best writer or anything, I don’t write music at all.
“So I literally come up with this in my head and then I write as I go.
“I made seven of these songs that’s on the project while I was in jail.
“So I had to sing it over and over and over and over in my head, until I can’t forget them now.”
When asked what the seven songs were, he said: “Right Back To You, White Roses, I Remember, Fool For You.
“I can’t think of the rest of the titles.”
Fetty – who was born Willie Junior Maxwell II – also revealed he didn’t sing once when he was behind bars, and he believes that is what “preserved” his sound.
Asked if he practiced in prison to maintain his voice, he said: “No, nothing at all. It’s crazy, I think me not doing anything is what preserved the sound.
“Like, the last time I sang a song was before I went to prison.”
Quizzed on whether he sang in the shower during his prison stint, he said: “Not one time.”
Last month, Fetty teased his new album just weeks before its release.
He said in an Instagram video: “When you lose the money everybody think that’s the worst part.
“When you lose them shows and calls stop coming through, the room start to get smaller, the noise fade away, and when it get real quiet that’s when it hit different.
“You see, I got so used to hearing Fetty everywhere I go, before I even knew who Zavier was.
“Somewhere in all that, I became a character in my own life. People really loved what I could provide for real, not who I really was.
“Then the chains come on, stage disappear, the applause stop, Fetty start sounding real different when it ain’t attached to nothing. No money, no lights, no attention, it’s just you.
“Gotta ask yourself, do you even know who that is anymore?
“Cuz when they take everything away, all you got left is a person your mama named you.
“People call me Fetty. But the people who know me call me Zavier.”