Who is Yelawolf? Well according to The Guardian, he is an artist unlike no other. He is not like anyone else and he isn't bound to the gilded cage of privilege inhabited by Jay-Z and Kanye West, instead he depicts everyday rural poverty with the evocative precision of a master storyteller. His style is unlike anything your average rap fan has ever seen, ranging from American gothic to gore, the "richness and invention of his language" and range of his vocal style "from beer-swilling rowdiness to a crawling, contemptuous sibilance". He has said that he feels he represents "not the ideal American" but those Americans that he calls the core: The Slums.
Michael Wayne Atha (born December 30, 1979), primarily known by his stage name(s) Yelawolf, Catfish Billy, as well as for a short period of time, M.W.A., is a rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, producer, and quite the storied and well traveled individual. Initially signed to Shady Records, Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment and Interscope Records in 2010 after a run of mildly successful independent releases, since 2019 he now operates his own label as well as brand under the "Slumerican" name. Under Shady Records Yelawolf was co-managed by Redd Klay Entertainment along with his personal manager Jeremy "J Dot" Jones. Currently, Yelawolf is currently managed by Edward Crowe.
Atha was born in Gadsden, Alabama, to a 15 year old mother and an absent father, and mostly raised in Antioch, Tennessee (but he lived in many places besides these two). Yelawolf did not have the easiest childhood. However, from a young age, Atha had a large interest in music and had been exposed to many different genres. This was in large part due to his mother, Sheila's, boyfriend being a sound engineer for Aerosmith (as well as REO Speedwagon, Ted Nugent, and 10,000 Maniacs) around the time that the Run-DMC version of "Walk This Way" was released. This resulted in a young Atha making friends with the trio. Yelawolf has recalled that Run-DMC once visited him at his childhood home, and gifted him some Beastie Boys' "Licensed to Ill" cassette tapes. As previously mentioned, Wolf spent much of his time in Antioch, Tennessee, as he was raised there. While there he attended Carter Lawrence Middle School in Nashville, which is located near the Edgehill Homes apartment projects, which had a vibrant Hip-Hop/Rap scene. Atha has said that while attending Carter Lawrence is when the genre of Hip-Hop/Rap all began to make sense to him. Yelawolf lists Three 6 Mafia, J Dilla, Pete Rock, CL Smooth, Black Star, Hieroglyphics, the Brooklyn-based trio Digable Planets as some of his inspirations, with Outkast being his biggest, and this can be accredited to his time in the projects and Carter Lawrence. Pushed by his idols, Atha started writing raps and "performing" them in the 5th grade, but mostly just with his friends, while skating, in the car, or while at a skate spot. Furthermore, even though he is from the South, Yela has said his favorite sound he was once enamoured with was the East Coast sound. As previously mentioned, Wolf was exposed to many genres as a young man, and due to his home in the same state that holds Music City, he was taught to embrace his country roots through artists such as Johnny Cash, and bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Finally, Atha also lists Kid Rock, Eminem, Black Sabbath, Kraftwerk, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Portishead, and N.W.A as some of his many inspirations that led to his unique sound.
Following his childhood, for a brief period of time at the ages of either 18 or 19, Atha moved to Berkeley, California , with his friend, Will Loach, to pursue skateboarding. In his childhood years, Atha was a great skater, and considered himself to be completely comfortable on a skateboard, even knowing many, many tricks including flip tricks and grind tricks. Sadly however, when Yela arrived in California it became clear to him that he would not make it as a pro-skater, because even though he was good, he was being shown up by the other skaters around him. Plus in addition, Atha was constantly putting his body through hell with the wear and tear from being a Skate-Rat. Also, he was not happy with the way of living in California, as he had been eating horribly, and practically living in abandoned frat houses. It was at this point that Atha realized he wanted to change his life for the better. What broke him was the fact that many nights he was homeless while in California, which led him to tell his mom to buy him a plane ticket for Christmas so he could come home. But, the hard times didn't stop for Yelawolf when he got home to Alabama.
When he returned to Alabama, Wolf knew nobody, and he figured if he stayed there he would remain a bum. He had to make another decision to change his life. In 2001, for one fishing season, Atha had an idea he told one of his friends: "Yo, let's go get on a fishing boat in Alaska and make some money" he said, being well aware of the risks, and the high possibility of death on an Alaskan fishing boat, Wolf threw caution to the wind and decided to pursue fishing. He hopped on a Greyhound bus and did a 5 day trip across the country to make this happen. This did not work out in his favor. In simple terms, he got screwed over. He didn't get paid anything near the promised amount, and his captain was very incompetent. After working for 20 hours per day, for 7 days a week, Atha only took $1500 home after a month. Following this, Atha once again returned home, and he began to dabble in both illegal and legal hustles. Wolf worked at just about every job he could, including construction, but never waiting tables. He has made it very clear he would have never done that. His illegal hustle was dealing drugs, which he has been very open about, and he has also been open about the fact that he wasn't good at it, because he just smoked them all by himself, as well as being "too nice" and "giving people too much weight for too cheap." All this time, Yela still wanted to pursue rapping. In 2005, a small fire was lit under him, that eventually started to be fanned.
In 2005, Yelawolf appeared on the UPN Network reality series, "The Road to Stardom" with Missy Elliott. This was the spark that lit the fire, and following his elimination from the show, Wolf released his debut studio album, "Creek Water" (2005). That same year he released "Pissin' in a Barrel of Beez" [Gangsta Grillz] (2005), a collaborative mixtape with DJ Drama, DJ Jaycee, and DJ Don Cannon. These projects continued to fan the flame that has been lit under Atha following his appearance on Missy Elliott's show, This led to Wolf signing with Columbia records in 2006, and this is when he met his [now former] manager in Huntsville, Alabama, Jeremy "J Dot" Jones. Shortly after, he moved to Atlanta, and started doing shows, and that is where he met his other [now former] manager, Brother Bear. This began to look like it could be Yela's big break. Like he could finally make it and be a rapper. In 2007, he released a single for his upcoming album, "Fear & Loathing in Small-Town U.S.A.", titled "Kickin'". Unfortunately, with new management, Columbia records were cutting a ton of artists, and Wolf's neck was one of the first on the chopping block. He had been dropped by Columbia, and now "Fear & Loathing in Small-Town U.S.A." had been cancelled. What had looked so promising began to look rather impossible yet again.
After being dropped from Columbia, Yelawolf went on to release two mixtapes, "Ball of Flames: The Ballad of Slick Rick E. Bobby" [Reference to Talladega Nights, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Riley] in 2007, as well as work now considered classic by fans with "Stereo: A Hip Hop Tribute to Classic Rock" in 2008. These projects went almost completely unnoticed, and at this point it looked as if the flame that was once being fanned beneath Atha had water poured on it. Then along came Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment in 2009, and following Atha's signing to them, he released his debut extended play "Arena Rap", which featured samples from a few classic songs, similarly to "Stereo". In 2009, after signing with Ghet-O-Vision, Atha began to work with their producer, WLPWR, on his 2009 mixtape titled "Trunk Muzik." "Trunk Muzik" was released in 2010, and in that moment, Yelawolf had won. "Trunk Muzik" was his breakthrough mixtape, and garnered him a following online, which got him recognized by Interscope Records. Following signing to Interscope in 2010, Yelawolf and his new team began creating a more defined rework/deluxe edition of "Trunk Muzik", this time being titled "Trunk Muzik 0-60" which was released in November of that same year under both Interscope and Ghet-0-Vision. At this time, this was by far, and considered by the majority to be Wolf's best work.
In 2011 a rumor began to swirl that a joint record deal with Eminem was in the works, and these rumors were confirmed true with the release of the 2011 XXL March Issue with Eminem and fellow new Shady Records signees Slaughterhouse. This signing to Shady records was massive. Yelawolf was also featured among the XXL's Top 11 Freshmen of 2011, releasing several songs on the magazine's yearly Freshman mixtape, along with great company like Kendrick Lamar, Cyhi Da Prynce and Big K.R.I.T.. In April of 2011, Wolf announced "Radioactive", his debut album on Shady Records. The title, "Radioactive" explains the whole purpose of this album, which was to get Yela active, on the radio. This is evident through the feature list, which was full of big names such as Kid Rock, Lil Jon, Fefe Dobson, Mystikal, Shawty Fatt, Rittz, Killer Mike, and Gangsta Boo. The album was slated for release in September of 2011, but was pushed back to being released in November of 2011. The album achieved some degree of the mainstream success that Wolf was going for, debuting #13 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Even though this was a very commercially successful project, Yelawolf has said he felt he lost a lot of creative liberties with this project and it wasn't really him, and many fans have the same consensus. Around this time Yelawolf began a mild beef with Cleveland, Ohio, rapper Machine Gun Kelly, which would go on for many years although never being very intense.
2012 was a similar situation for Yelawolf. On January 24, 2012, Yelawolf released a track with British singer Ed Sheeran, who was gaining popularity at the time, titled "You Don't Know (For F**k's Sake)". The track was for an upcoming collaborative extended play EP, titled "The Slumdon Bridge" . The EP was released on Valentine's Day, 2012 as a free download. In March 2012, Yelawolf announced that recording sessions for his third studio album began in June 2012, and this album would be titled "Love Story." However, due to a stage diving accident which caused a ruptured spleen, Yelawolf decided to delay the album's recording process. In addition, Atha revealed that a sequel to "Trunk Muzik", titled "Trunk Muzik Returns" was in the works. Later that same year, Yelawolf got a little closer back to his roots because in June he released a song titled "Happy Father's Day", which was the lead single off of his fifth official mixtape, "Heart of Dixie", which was to be produced by Alabama producer M16. Then to return closer to his traditional "representing the people that are the core of America" sound, he announced a long awaited collaborative EP with the drummer from the once massively popular punk band, Blink-182; Travis Barker. The EP was to be titled "Psycho White" and it was going to feature many different experimental sounds, and that it did. The lead single off of "Psycho White" featured Skinhead Rob of Transplants and Tim Armstrong of Rancid, and was titled "Push 'Em". This song, similarly to "Growing Up In The Gutter" (ft. Rittz) ["Radioactive"], was a song designed to be extremely brash, in your face, loud, and start a mosh-pit. Alas, as most Yelawolf fans have become accustomed to by now, there were several push-backs. The EP was finally released in November of 2012, debuting at #24 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with first week sales of 15,000 units. Yelawolf stated that all the tracks on the album will have a music video which is a promise held mostly true, but regarding something that was not held true, during an article with Rolling Stone, both he and Barker hinted at a sequel to the EP, which many fans are still waiting on. Finally for 2012, Yelawolf was a hidden feature on the song "Pretty Little Girl" on Blink-182's "Dogs Eating Dogs" EP.
When 2013 rolled around and neither "Trunk Muzik Returns" or "Love Story" had been released, fans became worried and questioned what the status of those projects was seeing as how they seemed to be just left up in the air. In an interview he addressed these concerns and said that "Trunk Muzik Returns" would be released in February 2013, and that "Love Story" would take some time as it would be very different sonically than "Radioactive" because as previously mentioned, he felt like he lost a lot of creative power on that project. The plan regarding "Love Story" was that he would record the album in Nashville and go to Detroit so he and Eminem could finish the production side of things. "Trunk Muzik Returns" was inevitably released slightly late in March of 2013 and it was ten original tracks, some of which featured legendary artists, Raekwon, Paul Wall, Killer Mike, ASAP Rocky, while all being produced by WLPWR. Later that same year, Atha announced in October that on Halloween, "Black Fall", his surprise 5 song collaborative EP with DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia fame would be released. This project took fans back to Yela's "Stereo" days because some of the songs sampled bands such as Korn, Metallica, and Pink Floyd. This was all for 2013, but then 2014 came around.
In 2014 Wolf kick-started the "Love Story" hype into full gear when he premiered his debut single from "Love Story" titled "Box Chevy V", the fifth installment to his famed and popular Box Chevy Series, on Shade 45 during an interview. Yelawolf stated Love Story would be released in May 2014, but this was completely inaccurate as delays pushed "Love Story" all the way back to April of 2015. During this time however, Wolf continued promoting the album, and this was by releasing weekly freestyles that sampled rock 'n roll classics, such as Pink Floyd's song, "Money". Atha as well as his fans described and consider the freestyles as a "mini-sequel" to "Stereo". When "Love Story" was finally released it was widely agreed upon by fans that it was Yela's best album, but critics put it down due to the polarizing fusion of country music and rap music. In spite of this, the album debuted #3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with 61,000 copies sold in its first week. Eminem is the only featured guest on Love Story and also serves as an executive producer alongside Yelawolf.
On August 25, 2015, Yelawolf was mired in controversy when he decided to defend the Confederate flag. This led to Eminem beginning to distance himself from Wolf, which would eventually be a reason for the parting of Atha from Shady Records.
Then came one of the darker chapters in both Yelawolf, and United States history. The Charleston Church Shooting. In this event, a white supremacist, who was also an avid Yelawolf fan, walked into an African-American church an began opening fire. The man behind the attack, Dylann Roof, killed nine people that day, in brutal and horrible ways. Roof was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges, and sentenced to death for this horrible crime.
Now, out of respect for those who were killed and the families of those that were killed, we won't stay on this topic long. This event made Yela reconsider his stance on the Confederate flag, and denouncing it as a symbol of hate, and stating that "any proud southerner is sad" in the track "To Whom It May Concern". The track is over 8 minutes long, and it is meant as an apology, and to spread awareness.
After the controversy had settled, when September of 2015 rolled around, Yelawolf announced his fourth studio album, "Trial by Fire". This album was supposed to be, according to Atha, much, much darker than "Love Story". This album was going to be produced by Yelawolf, Bones Owens, and Klever, so none of his regular producers. Then he went silent and then in the later months of 2016 Yelawolf was spotted working with the Florida Based producer, Jim Jonsin. Even though they had been spotted, the project they were working on remained a secret. Then, in early October 2016, the surprise collaborative EP, "House Of The Endless Life", shortened to just simply "HOTEL" was released. This project is regarded as some of Atha's best work, however it is not available on any streaming services due to the use of unapproved samples. Following this, the first two singles from "Trial by Fire", "Daylight" and "Shadows" featuring country singer Joshua Headley were released in late 2016 as a means to support the "Trial By Fire" tour. However this tour would be short lived.
Around this time Yelawolf had lost his long term friend, Shawtty Fatt, and his drinking had become a horrible addiction. And this was causing a lot of internal stress that was just waiting for a time to boil over, and boil over it did. During a show in Oregon, Yelawolf was seen destroying equipment belonging to Bones Owens, and not just one or two things, but many, many items. This led to a fallout between Bones, Klever, and Yelawolf which resulted in Bones Owens and Klever leaving the tour and the band. This incident was then followed by an aggressive altercation with a fan at the Sacramento show, which led to Yelawolf abruptly cancelling the remaining seven shows of the "Trial By Fire" tour. This was a very dark time for Yelawolf. Following the cancellation of the tour Yelawolf had a mental breakdown and contemplated killing himself before he was admitted to a mental ward where he was slapped with a 51/50 charge. After his release from the mental ward, Atha announced that he would be changing his stage name from Yelawolf which was based on his Cherokee Native American roots, in favor of his birth name, M.W.A. (Michael Wayne Atha), and that he would now sober up. This mental breakdown had many fans extremely worried, and not about the music, but about the man they idolize. At the same time though, many people wondered what the status between Atha and Shady Records was, and what the status of "Trial By Fire" was. After his release from the mental ward Atha had pretty much disappeared from the internet for a little over half a year. He had also broken up with his long time fiance, Canadian singer, Fefe Dobson.
Then, in a shocking resurgence, in June of 2017, Atha announced "Row Your Boat", which would be his return to the Hip-Hop/Rap world, and would be the third single off of "Trial By Fire". This revived hope for everyone that "Trial By Fire" would actually be released and Yelawolf was back, because he actually used the name 'Yelawolf' for his latest single. And, in more shocking news, Wolf announced another tour, the "51/50" tour. The name of the tour references 51/50 which is the term police use to label someone who is mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others around them. This tour would include new dates but also include shows at the previous venues that he had skipped on the "Trial By Fire" tour following his breakdown, and people who had previously purchased tickets would now get into those venues for free. At this time Yelawolf also announced another installment to his "Trunk Muzik" series, and that unlike the first few installments that were mixtapes, this would be a studio album, his fifth under Shady Records. Then finally, after many delays, "Trial by Fire" was finally released in October 2017, and it absolutely delivered on his promise of a much darker, grittier album, especially on songs like "Sabrina" and "Punk" (ft. DJ Klever, Juicy J, & Travis Barker), as well as a heartfelt tribute to his passed on friend Shawtty Fatt on the song "Ride or Die". At this time he reunited with Fefe. It was clear that Yelawolf wasn't quite out of the thick of his mind at this time but he was also clearly getting better.
Following "Trial By Fire", in June of 2018, "Love Story" received a Gold certification for 500,000 units sold.Then 2019 came around. As previously mentioned, "Trunk Muzik" would be getting another installment, and this time it would be an official studio album appropriately titled "Trunk Muzik III". Before the release of "Trunk Muzik III", Yelawolf began a tour to support the album where he premiered "Catfish Billy 2", a sequel to the fan favorite song from "Trunk Muzik Returns". It was during this tour that Yelawolf announced that "Trunk Muzik III" would be his last album before he departed from Shady records.This installment of the "Trunk Muzik" series would feature production from WLPWR, DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia, and Jim Jonsin as well as others. This album would also feature a wide variety of artists such as Caskey, Doobie, Rittz, and a posthumous verse from Shawtty Fatt, as well as a verse from Machine Gun Kelly, which marked an end to the beef between the two. However this did not come without its consequences, as Yelawolf was signed to Shady Records, and under Eminem's wing, and he was featuring MGK on a song right as the beef between MGK and Eminem was heating up, which many fans took as disrespectful to Eminem (you may remember in "Rap Devil" when Machine Gun Kelly said, "Don't be a sucker and take my verse off of Yelawolf's album, Thank you"). The officially released lead single for "Trunk Muzik III" was the song "TM3" which sampled parts of the original "Trunk Muzik" track. Before the release of "Trunk Muzik III", Yelawolf began working on another Studio Album titled "Ghetto Cowboy", which would be his first independent release following leaving Shady Records. Also before releasing "Trunk Muzik III", Atha would release freestyles on YouTube as promotional content, similarly to how he did for "Love Story". At this time, Atha dyed his hair red as an homage to the character Opie Taylor from the once very popular, now classic, "Andy Griffith Show". Upon release, "Trunk Muzik III" received mixed reviews from fans as a lot of people felt it was overly packed with feature verses and felt more like a 'featuring Yelawolf album' than a project of his own. Another common complaint was that many tracks felt like filler. Following this, Yelawolf put the finishing touches on "Ghetto Cowboy", and near the end of 2019 the album was released under his own label, "Slumerican". As promo for this album Atha began the "Ghetto Cowboy Tour", which was his second tour of 2019, and released the single "Unnatural Born Killer". Of the two albums released in 2019, "Ghetto Cowboy" was way more highly regarded by fans than "Trunk Muzik III" because many fans felt it was a much more cohesive and authentic Yelawolf project. Then following the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2021, Yelawolf dropped a bombshell on his fans.
For starters, in February of 2021, Yelawolf released an 11 track collaborative mixtape with Florida based independent rapper, Caskey. This project was called "YELAWOLF BLACKSHEEP" and was meant to be a brash and in your face, a loud fun project, and this was just the beginning. In March of 2021, Atha announced what he called "April Onslaught" which was where he would be releasing one project every week for the month of April. First up was "TURQUOiSE TORNADO", a collaboration EP with the internet personality turned rapper, RiFF RAFF. This project featured artists like Struggle Jennings and Peso Peso, and it received mixed reviews from fans, but it was popular enough for the song "MiLLiOn DOLLAR MULLET" to receive a chopped and screwed version. Next was "Slumafia", a collaborative project with producer DJ Paul, and it served as somewhat a spiritual successor to "Black Fall" from 2013. This project featured verses from Caskey, Seed of 6ix, Gangsta Boo, and DJ Paul himself as well as others. For the third week of April, "Mile Zero" with DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill was released and this project featured classic West Coast rap production with feature verses from Struggle Jennings, Bub Styles, Christian Rose, Del The Funky Homosapien as well as guest vocals from country music superstar, Jelly Roll, and more features. Finally came the final release of April which was the studio album "Mud Mouth", which was a smash hit among fans, but many fans argued that the album could have received mainstream attention had Yelawolf had better management, specifically the songs "Dog House" and "Aquanet". Yelawolf stated that "Mud Mouth" would be his last rap project before he departed from the genre, and features the best rap skills.
In 2022, fans got to know where Yelawolf would be taking his career following his departure from rap... Rock N' Roll. "Sometimes Y" would be Yelawolf's debut rock project, and it would be a collaboration with Shooter Jennings, the band's producer/guitarist. The lead single, "Make Me A Believer" was starkly different from anything Yelawolf had done up to that point, and in March of 2022 the full album was released. This album received some radio play but Yelawolf has stated he wasn't very happy with how the project had turned out. A sequel called "Temples Chariot" is supposedly in the works however it's status is unknown.
Following the release of "Sometimes Y", Yelawolf posted with Caskey about a sequel to "YELAWOLF BLACK SHEEP" titled "Get Some", but nothing more came of this as of 2024.
Even though "Mud Mouth" was supposed to be Yelawolf's last rap project, in 2023 he announced "War Story", which would be a spiritual successor to "Love Story", with the irony being that "Love Story" was harsher and "War Story" was more of a story of a full career. Yelawolf used "War Story" as a means to begin a TikTok page where he would promote his music, and he used that platform to push the first single, "Everything" which was a boastful track about being the best there is, and completing his goals, and reaching everything he wanted in life. Accompanying this was a music video featuring Cowboy Killer, DJ Paul, DJ Klever, and other big names in the 'Slumerican Family'. The next single was "Make You Love Me", which was originally thought to have been named "Make You F**k Me" by fans. This single was also accompanied by a music video, this time depicting a murder taking place in the early 1900's. Next up was "New Me" which was another boastful track about reinventing himself. Finally came "Trailer In The Sky" (ft. Jelly Roll) and this song was polarizing amongst fans because many thought it was lazy. This song did not receive a traditional music video, instead getting an animated video. Finally, in June of 2024, the double album "War Story" was released. The first side of the album was titled "Michael Wayne" and featured production from Malay. The first side was a story about Yelawolf's life which was fitting due to the title. The second side of the album was the fourth installment in the "Trunk Muzik" series titled "Trunk Muzik Forever". The album featured verses from Killer Mike, Bub Styles, DJ Paul, Struggle Jennings, and more.
As of Now, Yelawolf has not released any more music, however there is supposedly a collaboration between British producer, Kordhell, who is prominent in the Phonk Scene, and Atha in the works. This album is apparently going to be a new genre that they're pioneering called "Country Phonk". There are also still talks of "Temples Chariot", another rock album, as well as "Get Some".
As of December 30th, 2024 Yelawolf will be 45 years old, and who knows where his career is going from here. He's had an extremely long, storied, and weird career. Where will we see him next? The Gathering of the Juggalos (again)? Or in another movie (The Peanut Butter Falcon)? Who knows, but until then, stay Slum!
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…shrink me down again