Before They Were Famous

Only three years removed from dropping his breakthrough album “Life of Betrayal”, Florida rapper Yungeen Ace is ready to release the follow up to that project, “Life of Betrayal 2x”. Pair that with his viral and controversial hit single “Who I Smoke”, which has already earned nearly 30 Million views on YouTube, and it seems like Yungeen Ace is finally ready to take over the hip-hop game once and f...

Jelly Roll is a 34-year-old rapper hailing from Antioch, Tennessee, who has eaten at the restaurant chain known as the Waffle House more times than he cares to count. And while it might not be the only reason why Jelly Roll weighs around 450-pounds, it sure is a contributing factor. In fact, Jelly Roll is such a big fan of this fine establishment that when it came time to create his breakout recor...

After the tragic passing of Pop Smoke left a gaping void in most Brooklyn Drill fans’ playlists, few people ever thought there’d be another artist that embodied the movement as much as he did -- until Dusty Locane showed up that is. This 21-year-old artist recently became the latest rap sensation to hail from Brooklyn -- and thanks to his personal connection with Smoke himself, many fans see him a...

It’s been said that fame and fortune change people, but don’t tell that to EST Gee – this dude is still the same guy he always has been despite the fact that he’s now earning himself nearly 7-figure paydays and performing on stage next to Jack Harlow. It’s a far cry away from his early days, growing up in the Clarksdale projects of Louisville, Kentucky, where he was never too far away from possibl...

Chris Hansen is a reporter whose main claim-to-fame was as the host of the NBC investigative journalist series, “Dateline” and its signature segment: “To Catch a Predator”. Back in the early 2000s, Chris would lure unsuspecting criminals with very particular and disturbing tastes into a sit-down interview where the depths of their depravity would be visible for a national audience to see first-han...

Santan Dave, who often goes by just DAVE, has had a monumental rise to UK superstardom over the past few years thanks in large part to his critically and commercially successful music that has seen him not only earn the Hyundai Mercury Prize in 2019 but deliver legendary performance at the BRIT Awards in 2020 as well. Today, Dave is only 23-years old, and he started this journey back when he was 1...

Just last week these two men exchanged real-world beef online after 6ix9ine poked fun at Blueface's latest tattoo of his jeweler across his head. Blueface soon after had his instagram deleted calling out 6ix9ine with a Twitter post. For the record, our main Instagram also got deleted last week and I don't even have an online brothel or hit up the strip clubs like your man Blueface. Your boy McCrud...

Way back when in 1991, LL Cool J opened his hit-single “Mama Said Knock You Out”, with the now-infamous line: “Don’t call it a comeback/I been here for years” – and in our newest video series, we’re going to take that sentiment to a whole new level as we study the rise, fall, and rise again of some of today’s most resilient celebrities in a series we call – what else -- The Comeback! Whether it’s...

If you were to just take a quick glance at Mario Judah, you'd be forgiven for thinking he is basically the love child of Dracula and upcoming comedian Druski 2 Funny, after all, he is a mixture of Druskis talents as a jokester, elite-level musical acumen with the theatrics of what we can only describe as a swaggy Gothic Vampire. In fact -- believe it or not, but Druski and Judah have actually alre...

On the DARK SIDE OF FAME is a different story altogether and off-camera, The Ace Family, and Austin McBroom’s reputation, in particular, is far from stellar. In fact, according to some people, it’s downright criminal. In addition to widely-publicized rumors that Austin is a serial philanderer, he’s also faced accusations of serious domestic crime. More recently there have even been whispers that t...

6ix9ine needs to chill in the comments we here at Before They Were Famous are just thankful this didn't end up another tragic story. These rappers' real lives are no joke and Lil Durk certainly has a ride or die on his hands with India Cox or India Royale as she's known by on social media. If you don't know about the latest news, the couple were allegedly awoken at 5am after being shot at, they pu...

YouTuber FPSRussia, whose real name is Kyle Myers, once operated the most successful firearms and explosives channel on the platform. What set his content apart from all the rest was Kyle’s performance as “Dmitri Potapoff”, a reputed Russian from Moscow who would explore the ins and outs of a new firearm in each video, all while entertaining his audience with anecdotes in a thick, and fake, Russia...

Giannis Antetokounmpo, the man who’s best known as “The Greek Freak”, is a basketball superstar of such remarkable ability that he’s become one of the most popular celebrities in all of Greece, the country of his birth. But for most of Giannis’ childhood, he was largely considered a foreigner by those very same people he met on the streets of Athens. As the son of African immigrants, he and his pa...

If you’ve ever heard the song “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)”, then chances are you’ve heard of the rapper Silento who climbed to nearly the top of the Billboard Charts back in 2015 with this one-hit-wonder. But ever since that moment, Silento has made more headlines for this erratic behavior than he has his music. In the summer of 2020, he was arrested not once, but twice, for committing some seriously...

When it comes to modern-day Hollywood megastars, few people can compare to award-winning actress Scarlett Johansson. After beginning her professional acting career at the young age of 7, Johansson wowed critics and fans alike with iconic roles in Lost in Translation, Match Point, Under the Skin, and, of course, Marvel's Avengers franchise. But before she was Black Widow. Well, it turns out, her ch...

It hasn’t taken long for “90 Day Fiancé” to become one of TLC’s flagship series. The show is currently on its eighth season and nearly as popular as ever thanks in large part to the man whose small stature meshes unbelievably with his larger-than-life persona – I am, of course, talking about none other than Big Ed. Few reality stars have skyrocketed to fame quicker than Big Ed Brown. After first a...

On the DARK SIDE OF FAME is a different story altogether and throughout the course of its seven years on television, “90 Day Fiancé” has given us reality stars who are constantly having run-ins with the law, cheating on one another, uttering racial slurs, or generally just being horrible, horrible, people. I mean, why else do you think so many of us watch? So, I hope you guys will join me as we pl...

Drake and Michael B Jordan were recently spotted courtside at a Sierra Canyon game. But it was basketball star Amari Bailey’s mother, Johanna Leia, who grabbed all the social media attention. Drake was standing right behind her and we all know how Drake likes his ladies. Well for his recent date with Johanna Leia he decided to up his game and not only take her to dinner but to rent out the entire...

In today’s constant news cycle, viral celebrities don’t always get their 15-minutes of fame -- more often than not, it’s more like 15-seconds – but the enigmatic content creator known as The Backpack Kid is looking to change that narrative. This young man kicked off one of the most popular dance crazes ever a few years ago when he dropped “The Floss” on all of our unsuspecting eyeballs. But as muc...

Perhaps now more than ever before, the music industry is going through a crazy influx of emerging young artists – meaning that it’s becoming increasingly hard to stand apart from the pack. But for up-and-coming hip-hop superstar Yung Bleu, that’s anything but the case after his newest hit singles featuring appearances from the likes of Drake and Chris Brown have him finally garnering the type of a...

In this history of professional wrestling, no one created quite the “cult of personality” as CM Punk did during his heralded run from 2011-2014. Despite the immense success, he found in the latter half of his run with the company -- to say that this former world champion left WWE under a dark cloud of resentment is probably something of an understatement. In the seven years since he left the squar...

Whistlin Diesel is doing something right because this man is pulling in a lot of views on YouTube & Facebook which is allowing him to destroy a lot of high-priced machinery. I mean his latest Instagram post boasts that he's already dropped half a million dollars into a customized truck called the Monstermax 2 which he said will be the largest truck on the road. He's bought plenty of vehicles worth...

Matt Carriker, is a veterinarian with his own clinic, but he has generated millions and millions of subscribers through his various YouTube channels — Vet Ranch, Demolition Ranch, and OffTheRanch but his YouTube career started off modestly enough with him posting Dog Versus Deer over a decade ago. His fan base are known as the Demolitia which is described on Urban Dictionary as: the term used to d...

For those of you who may not have heard of them yet, ZIAS! is a YouTubing duo comprised of the entertainers “Just Zik” and B. Lou -- two former football players who met at Tulsa University and instead of going pro in their sport of choice, ended up betting on their own personalities carrying them to internet fame. When speaking about the beginnings of their relationship, they told Oklahoma’s News...

Let’s face it – with his shaved head, muscular build, deep voice, and appealing charm, Vin Diesel is a true Hollywood Star – but what you might not realize is just how much of a self-made-man Vin really is. Vin grew up in New York City at the far edge of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village in what they used to call “Artists’ housing”. Basically, it was a space where relatively poor artists and their fam...