1. He’s a musician who found fame on SoundCloud: The Florida-born artist made it big after publishing music on SoundCloud. He used the music platform to share his debut album, Don’t Forget About Me, Demos. When the project went viral, a 21-year-old Fike was signed to Columbia Records. He went on to collaborate with artists the likes of Halsey, Justin Bieber and Paul McCartney.
2. He went sober after some rocky years: When Fike released his debut album in 2017, he was in jail for battery of a police officer, according to Complex. The musician told the outlet that he “couldn’t check the views or respond to the homies” when he first shared the EP. As for the charges, Fike said it was because he was “wrong place, wrong time, charge with my brother.”
When he was signed to Columbia, he used the money to retain a lawyer for his mother, who was facing drug charges. “I really needed money for her lawyer, straight up,” he explained. “And that’s why we couldn’t settle below anything that what we were working with… It was like now or never, they gotta get some crazy amount of money.”
In April, he told GQ that being sober has made a big impact on his life, saying, “I can make full songs now, and I don’t hate them. I make music by myself, so I need to be sober to know how to plug this s–t in here. I’m so proud of how far my music has come. I’m expanding my knowledge.”