Yung Gravy is the funniest artist you know

Matthew Raymond Hauri, stage name Yung Gravy, tunes into a virtual press conference from his mom’s basement in Minnesota.

For nearly any other artist as big as Yung Gravy, this would be impossible. Billie Eilish, young as she is, couldn’t get away with Zoom-ing from her parents’ house. Oliver Tree exists outside the realm of metaphorical parental relations. Conan Gray’s discography caters to a parent-less alt reality (and demographic). Generation after generation, the music has changed, but one things remains the same: Parents. Are. Not. Cool.

Yung Gravy isn’t bothered. Being under his mom’s roof doesn’t keep him from still sporting a pair of gold chains or from owning up to his Gravy persona. Hauri hosts a matter-of-fact attitude towards his music. He never writes with an objective of being funny, just like how he never set out to become the mega-star he is now. Hauri’s humor, name (“I said a line with ‘wavy’ and ‘gravy,’ and it stuck.”), and his fame are all things that just… happened.

“A lot of my lyrics are just what comes to mind,” said Hauri

Hauri first started gaining traction with tracks like “Mr. Clean” and “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot” in 2018. His music—known for its humorous take on rap and satirical lyrics—quickly started circulating, largely due to the help of meme pages on Instagram.

Online cultures like TikTok have seen the accelerated rise of artists like ppocaine and Ashnikko; this trend of artists being able to digitally propel their careers has become so prominent that Spotify has a playlist titled 'Internet People' with more than 300,000 followers. But before 'Internet People,' before Doja Cat's monopoly over TikTok dances, and before anyone had even heard of Roddy Ricch, there was Yung Gravy and the gravy train.

From the start of his career, whether he wanted to or not, the term ‘meme rapper’ has become closely associated with Hauri’s act.

“I was making music and it [had always been] stupid from the beginning.”

Hauri’s music career was jumpstarted by a joke, and for a while a joke was all that was associated with his artist persona, until the joke never ended. This is why Hauri can get away with Zoom-ing from his mom’s basement, and with sharing that piece of information in a press conference.

Yung Gravy’s music will always be funny both in and out of a meme format. And Yung Gravy can never become a joke because he’s always been funny in the first place. You can’t make fun of someone funny, because chances are if there’s something to be made fun of, they’ve probably already beaten you to it.

And that’s exactly what happened on track nine of Yung Gravy’s new album, “Gasanova.”

“No one at your club ‘cause they’re all at my momma’s house.”

Listen to Yung Gravy’s “Gasanova” (2020), streaming now on all platforms.