{"id":1437,"date":"2026-06-12T15:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=1437"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:36:36","slug":"for-years-rap-success-eluded-this-charlotte-ex-con-then-dababy-came-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=1437","title":{"rendered":"For years, rap success eluded this Charlotte ex-con. Then DaBaby came calling."},"content":{"rendered":"

To get an idea of how stubbornly persistent Fetty P Franklin is \u2014 and has been \u2014 on his unlikely rise in Charlotte hip-hop, just listen to how he describes what he\u2019s been up to lately:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt ain\u2019t even been a whole seven days. I\u2019m gonna say like four, five days, I done recorded about at least 30 songs,\u201d says the Queen City-based rapper as he lounges in a corner of a control room at Gat3 Productions,<\/a> the Grammy-winning Charlotte studio where he recorded his new album, \u201cBet the Bank on Frank.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s just like practicing. It\u2019s like shooting in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the kind of persistence that has earned him a spot in the lineup for DaBaby<\/a>\u2019s Be More Grateful Festival<\/a> on Saturday in Concord.<\/p>\n

An even clearer indication that persistence has been as important to Franklin\u2019s success as talent, however, may be this:<\/p>\n

Franklin (whose real name is Patrick Glenn Jr.) didn\u2019t become a full-time rapper at 21. Or 25. Or 30. He became one at the ripe old age of 35, just last year, when his blend of gritty street narratives and surprisingly reflective storytelling caught the attention of DaBaby, the city\u2019s most commercially successful rapper.<\/p>\n

The two first connected while working on \u201cSDA,\u201d a track from Franklin\u2019s 2025 album \u201cFRANK.\u201d<\/a> Their chemistry quickly led to a seven-song collaborative project called \u201cKirk Franklin\u201d \u2014 a playful nod to DaBaby\u2019s last name and Franklin\u2019s stage name \u2014 and, most recently, an invitation for Franklin to perform at Saturday\u2019s festival alongside artists including 50 Cent, Moneybagg Yo, Trick Daddy and Waka Flocka Flame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the greatest time of my life,\u201d Franklin says. \u201cI\u2019ve had the most money I ever had in my life, doing things I\u2019ve never done, you know, all because of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the story of how he got to this place begins in a Charlotte most newcomers have never seen.<\/p>\n

For many Charlotteans, the city is defined by South End apartment towers, NoDa murals, craft breweries, Panthers football and an endless influx of transplants.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the Charlotte that shaped Franklin \u2014 and he\u2019ll make sure you know it.<\/p>\n

Franklin almost seems amused when he learns his interviewer has never heard of Earle Village, the west Charlotte public housing development where his family was living when he was born. He responds with a pointed pop quiz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what about Belvedere? Double Oaks? Dalton Village? Southside Homes? Boulevard Homes? Little Rock?\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all public housing communities that have been demolished, redeveloped, renamed or otherwise faded from public consciousness during Charlotte\u2019s transformation over the past few decades.<\/p>\n

Franklin isn\u2019t really asking questions, though. He\u2019s making a point:<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know those places, he argues, you don\u2019t know the real Charlotte. And if you don\u2019t know the real Charlotte, he seems to be suggesting, you can\u2019t truly understand who he<\/i> is, either.<\/p>\n

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He says he was largely \u201craised by the streets\u201d of those projects. His father spent much of his childhood incarcerated, and he had to learn early lessons about survival, hustling and self-reliance from the surrounding neighborhoods rather than from a traditional family structure.<\/p>\n

Starting around the age of 14, he spent about a decade cycling in and out of trouble with the law, including serving time on drug charges.<\/p>\n

It was in jail that the identity of Fetty P Franklin began to take shape.<\/p>\n

As he tells it, he was kicking around rap-name ideas with another inmate in the county lockup. The \u201cFetty\u201d portion reflected his attraction to money and hustling culture \u2014 \u201cfetty\u201d being slang for cash. The \u201cP\u201d came from Patrick, his given first name. \u201cFranklin\u201d carried a double meaning: It tied into the money theme through Benjamin Franklin, whose face appears on the $100 bill, while also giving the name a more complete, memorable sound.<\/p>\n

But what makes the story interesting isn\u2019t really the name itself. It\u2019s that long before the festivals, streams and DaBaby collaborations, he was sitting in jail trying to imagine what might come next.<\/p>\n

And the name wound up outlasting the circumstances that produced it.<\/p>\n

Franklin began releasing music independently in 2018, drawing heavily from his own experiences.<\/p>\n

For years, the music wasn\u2019t a career so much as what Franklin now calls \u201can expensive hobby.\u201d He poured money into studio sessions, videos, clothes and travel while earning little or nothing in return. The audience grew slowly. The bills kept coming. At times, he questioned whether the investment made any sense.<\/p>\n

But he stayed stubborn.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough finally arrived in 2025, when his album \u201cFRANK\u201d yielded viral hits like \u201cJimmy N Johnny,\u201d<\/a> which eventually eclipsed 10 million streams. Suddenly, a rapper who had spent seven years grinding in relative obscurity found himself attracting national attention \u2014 including from DaBaby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting, because in a lot of ways, Franklin is pretty cynical about the city he calls home, especially when it comes to the music business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Charlotte will ever be one of those cities where somebody can walk out the house, come up with a song, put it out, the whole city get behind it, and he blow up,\u201d he says. \u201cToo much crab-in-a-bucket business around here. Ain\u2019t nobody want to see nobody win. And if they do<\/i> want to see you win, they don\u2019t want to see you winning more times than them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But DaBaby became proof that things don\u2019t always have to work that way.<\/p>\n

When the established rap star saw the up-and-comer climbing the ladder, Franklin says, he didn\u2019t try to shake him off of it. \u201cHe put another ladder right there, and another one. (He said) \u2018Matter of fact, if that one fall, just jump on this one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And now that Franklin is finding fame and fortune of his own, he\u2019s enjoying himself and living the life of a successful rapper to the extent that he can. He recently bought a retired Brinks truck \u2014 one that\u2019s \u201cbulletproof, bomb-proof, grenade-proof, RPG-proof,\u201d he says \u2014 largely because he thought it would make a memorable image for the \u201cBet the Bank on Frank\u201d album.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Franklin says he has little interest in returning to the life that inspired many of his songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was 14, I\u2019d never been really a free person on my birthdays all the way up until the last few years,\u201d he says. \u201cIt always been something going on throughout my birthday, I\u2019m in prison, fighting a case, serious stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Then he pauses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis,\u201d he says, \u201cis just a different time in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 12, 2026 at 11:24 AM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Charlotte public housing projects to DaBaby\u2019s Be More Grateful Festival stage, rapper Fetty P Franklin\u2019s unlikely rise in hip-hop was years in the making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nFor years, rap success eluded this Charlotte ex-con. 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