Lil Pump is an American rapper and songwriter popular for songs like Gucci Gang, I Love It, Esskeetit, and Gang Shit. He is well known for his crazy colorful hairstyle and rap technique.
Lil Pump leveraged streaming platforms like SoundCloud as an independent artist and quickly emerged as one of the popular rappers on the platforms. His song “Gucci Gang” quickly went viral on the internet and received millions of plays on SoundCloud and other streaming apps.
The song peaked at number #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a 5x platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America. This single increased his popularity, giving him more opportunities to collaborate with other artists.
However, his career hasn’t been free from controversies. He has been arrested severally in the past, some of which are linked to drug cases and a shooting inside his home.
Despite these controversies, his career and popularity haven’t nosedived. His second studio album “Harverd Dropout” dropped in 2019 and it ranked #7 on the U.S. Billboard 200 charts. At the time of writing, Lil Pump’s net worth is estimated to be around $14 million. This article provides more insights into how the rapper became rich.
| Full Name | Gazzy Fabio García |
| Stage Name | Lil Pump |
| Place of Birth | Miami, Florida, United States |
| Date of Birth | August 17, 2000 |
| Age | 23 Years (2023) |
| Eye Color | Dark Brown |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Zodiac Sign | Leo |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality | American |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Education | Charles W. Flanagan High School, Harvard University |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.71 m) |
| Weight | 65 Kg or 143 lbs |
| Girlfriend | Riley Reid |
| Occupation | Rapper, Record Producer, Singer, Songwriter |
| Net Worth | $14 Million |
Early Life and Biography
Lil Pump was born on August 17, 2000, in Miami, Florida. His birth name is Gazzy Fabio Garcia but adopted ‘Lil Pump’ as his stage name.
His parents hailed from South America; his father is Cuban while his mother is Mexican. However, both parents lived in the United States. When Garcia was 6, his parents had both separated and finalized their divorce.
Being the only child of his parents, he had the opportunity to get a formal education like every other child. He seemed to be problematic as he got into conflicts and was expelled from every school he went to.
Lil Pump had a keen interest in music since his childhood years. At 13, his cousin Lil Ominous introduced him to Omar Pineiro (a.k.a Smokepurpp) and they began working together.
The duo worked together for a long time but were expelled from many school districts. Afterward, Lil Pump was enrolled in an alternative high school but was eventually expelled in 10th grade for inciting a riot and fighting.
Career
Lil Pump’s professional music career kicked off in 2013 when he was introduced to Smokepurpp by his cousin Lil Ominous. Smokepurpp had begun uploading his tracks online to SoundCloud in 2014 but had deleted some of his older tracks on the platform over quality issues.
In 2016, Smokepurpp invited Lil Pump to a studio and they worked on a song “Johnny,” which was one of their earliest collaborations. The single was a successful release and had amassed more than 9 million streams on SoundCloud alone.
Later, Smokepurpp produced a beat and asked Lil Pump to freestyle over the track. The song Smokepurpp produced was the eponymous single “Lil Pump.” After the success of “Johnny,” Lil Pump created his own SoundCloud account to upload his own singles. The first track uploaded to this account was the “Lil Pump” single produced by Smokepurpp.
He also opened a YouTube account and the first video he uploaded on it was the music video for his song “Lil Pump.” The music video has garnered more than 40 million views on the video streaming website.
After the release of his debut single, Lil Pump released more tracks to his SoundCloud account, including “Ignorant,” “Elementary,” “Gang Shit,” and “Drum$tick.” Each of these tracks received millions of streams and plays on the SoundCloud streaming platform.
Despite being an underground, independent artist, Lil Pump’s popularity on SoundCloud increased incredibly along with his following. While he would release tracks on SoundCloud, he would also upload them on his YouTube channel.
His popularity and success on SoundCloud made him a big name in the South Florida underground rap scene and one of the biggest SoundCloud rappers at the time. In 2016, Lil Pump co-headlined the No Jumper tour with other artists and also performed at the Rolling Loud Festival.
In 2017, he released the singles “D Rose” and “Boss,” both of which were popular hits on SoundCloud, amassing over 70 million streams on the platform. Particularly, the song “D Rose” was a fan favorite and a music video was made for it.
The official music video for “D Rose” was directed by Cole Bennett (popularly known as Lyrical Lemonade). It was published on YouTube in January 2017 and had garnered over 150 million views.
On June 8, 2017, he signed a deal with Tha Lights Global and Warner Records. The record deal was signed just two months away from his 17th birthday. A month after signing the deal, Lil Pump took to Twitter to announce that his debut album is being prepared for release in August.
Lil Pump went back on his words and didn’t release the album as expected but released the single “Gucci Gang. The song increased his mainstream penetration and boosted his popularity to a wider international audience.
The song was his first entry in the Billboard Hot 100 and it reached the 3rd spot on the chart. It also reached #3 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop and US Rap charts. On January 11, 2018, the song “Gucci Gang” was certified platinum by the RIAA. By July 2018, it was certified 3x platinum and as of now, it has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA.
On October 6, 2017, Lil Pump’s self-titled studio album was released and it featured many of his old songs he uploaded on SoundCloud while starting out.
The album “Lil Pump” featured songs such as Gucci Gang, D Rose, Crazy, Back, and Iced Out. It also featured guest appearances from rappers Smokepurpp, Lil Yachty, 2 Chainz, Rick Ross, Chief Keef, and Gucci Mane.
The music video for the song “Gucci Gang” was published on YouTube on October 24, 2017, and it has gotten over 1 billion views on YouTube. Truly, the song introduced him to a mainstream audience. More than 20 million people are subscribed to Lil Pump’s YouTube channel.
His first mixtape project titled “Lil Pump” was released in 2017 and it peaked at #2 and #3 on the US Rap and US R&B/Hip-Hop and the Billboard 200 chart respectively.
In January 2018, Lil Pump’s record deal with Warner Bros. Records was voided because he was a minor at the time of signing the contract. The same month, he released the track “I Shyne” with producer Carnage.
In March 2018, Lil Pump re-signed another record deal with Tha Lights Global and Warner Records, who approached him with an $8 million advance.
The deal stipulated that Lil Pump would be paid $9,000 in the first year of the contract. In the second year, he would receive $12,000, and from the third year to the seventh year, he would receive $15,000 from Warner Records.
Also, the contract will see him receive a 14% share of his royalties in the U.S., and in some sales formats, he will get over 66% share of his royalties.
Due to the $8 million advance he received, he won’t earn any more money until all the money given to me in advance is paid back. So, the best way to repay the advance is to release hit songs that will make more money for the label. Failure to repay the advance within the years of the contract will make it difficult for him to get another deal from the company.
The following month, he released the song “Esskeetit,” which debuted and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On May 24, 2018, he performed the song on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”
In the summer of 2018, Lil Pump released the single “Drug Addict,” which was accompanied by a music video featuring a cameo appearance from star actor Charlie Sheen. He announced a tour in August of that year to promote his upcoming album “Harverd Dropout” but the tour was canceled a month later due to unknown reasons.
His song “I Love It” featuring rapper Kanye West had over 46 million streams within the first week of release and eventually made it to number #1 on the Canadian Hot 100 charts.
In late 2018, Lil Pump’s YouTube channel had gotten more than 11 million subscribers and his videos had gotten over 2 billion views collectively. He also had over 1 billion streams on Spotify. Altogether, his songs were pulling billions of streams on all streaming platforms.
Lil Pump has received several awards, honors, and nominations thanks to his music releases. In 2018, he received nominations from the MTV Video Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards.
In October 2018, he released a single “Multi Millionaire” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. In February 2019, he released a song with Lil Wayne entitled “Be Like Me,” and a music video was made for the song following its release.
On February 22, 2019, Lil Pump released his sophomore music album “Harverd Dropout,” featuring guest appearances from Smokepurpp, Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert, Quavo, Offset, Kanye West, 2Chainz, and YG.
Although the album reached the U.S. Billboard 200 chart it was received with mixed reviews, notably negative remarks from critics and fans alike who weren’t as impressed with it as they were with his early releases.
Lil Pump performed Be Like Me on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show on February 25, 2019. On September 16, 2020, he released the song “Life Like Me” on SoundCloud. He also worked on other songs, including his songs and others where he appeared as a guest artist.
Also, he released more singles exclusively on his SoundCloud account. He recorded and released songs such as “Racks on Racks,” and “Butterfly Doors.”
In 2021, he linked up with producer Ronny J, and together, they worked on his album titled “No Name.” In 2023, Garcia released his fourth studio album “Lil Pump 2” as a follow-up to his debut album.
Lil Pump has worked with several top artists, including YG, Quavo, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Offset, Lil Yachty, Smokepurpp, 2Chainz, Gucci Mane, and many more.
Business Ventures and Investments
Towards the end of 2021, Opulous launched a royalty-based investment initiative, backed by an NFT security. Through this medium, individual investors and partners will be able to invest in shares of Lil Pump’s single “Mona Lisa” featuring Soulja Boy, which was set to be released the following year.
This business provided several benefits and bonuses to investors, depending on the amount invested. They also provide crowd-investing and crowdfunding opportunities to interested partners. The Mona Lisa LLC investment packages include:
- Bronze – $100.
- Silver – $1,000.
- Gold – $5,000.
- Platinum – $10,000.
Also, investors would get a different exclusive NFT artwork, depending on their investment package. Those who subscribe to the platinum package will get a rarer NFT than what is given to those on the Bronze package.
This business venture raised over $500,000 on the Opulous platform. However, the song itself didn’t pick up as quickly as expected, and received thousands of views within the period.
Coincidentally, rapper, Lil Wayne released a single with the same title featuring Kendrick Lamar.
Personal Life
Lil Pump has announced that he is suffering from dyslexia, which is difficulty in reading and writing.
In February 2018, he was arrested for using a firearm in an inhabited area. The manager claimed there were three men who attempted to break into his San Fernando Valley residence before shooting into the door.
During their investigations, the police discovered the bullet shots on the doors may have come from inside the house and they returned with a search warrant. On subsequent checks and findings, they found an unloaded handgun below the balcony and firearms in other places in the house.
Lil Pump’s mother was also investigated for having an unsecured weapon at the house and endangering a minor.
A few months later, Lil Pump was arrested in Miami for driving without a license. In October 2018, his manager hinted that he had served a jail sentence for violating parole in connection with the incident. However, he failed to provide more details.
In December 2018, Lil Pump was arrested again but not in the United States. He was arrested in Copenhagen for possession of marijuana after a stage performance in Vega. Consequently, he paid a $700 fine and was restricted from entering the country for the next two years.
In July 2018, Lil Pump purchased a 5,000-square-foot waterfront mansion in Miami Beach for around $4.6 million.
In 2021, the IRS filed a lien on his Miami home for $1.6 million in unpaid taxes. Some weeks after, he received another lien from the IRS claiming he owned $130,000 in 2020 and over $141,000 the next year, summing his total taxes to around $2 million.
In April 2022, he took to Instagram to break news of his father’s demise. In July 2023, he announced that he would be retiring from music to become an astronaut.
Lil Pump Net Worth
Lil Pump is one of the pioneers of SoundCloud rap. As an up-and-coming artist, he leveraged the use of powerful internet tools and platforms to make his music heard.
Lil Pumps’s meteoric rise is a source of inspiration to several independent artists with a tight marketing budget. The American rapper blew up with the release of Gucci Gang, which gave him several opportunities and allowed him to charge a high amount for his services.
Lil Pump’s career may have started as a teen rapper, but he has worked his way to the top and built a $12 million net worth. He makes money from several sources, including sponsorship and endorsement deals, business ventures, album sales, music royalties, live performances, SoundCloud revenues, YouTube Ad revenues, music features, and more.