Yung Gravy, 23, is on the tour bus leaving Canada when he gets on the phone with Eugene Weekly. It’s late morning, and he’s still yawning during the interview. That’s the cost of late-night partying in Toronto.
Penning hits like “1 Thot, 2 Thot, Red Thot, Blue Thot,” “Mr. Clean” and “Whip a Tesla,” Gravy is enjoying modern-day success as his videos and songs track millions of views and streams. He’s on tour to promote his most recent album Sensational, and he’s about to bring the Gravy train to Eugene.
His work often samples old-school songs such as The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” and Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From.” Gravy says he listened to that sort of music growing up and began sampling the songs and rapping over them because it wasn’t commonly found in trap music. So he made it a part of his identity.
A bigger part of his identity is his love for MILFs (aka “mother I’d like to f**k”). Gravy raps about MILFs and, coupled with his Minnesota roots, becomes a real-life Eddie Haskell from Leave It To Beaver. His videos, like “Whip A Tesla,” also feature women who could fall in the MILF category.
Gravy says he reaches out to older women because he thinks not enough people are hitting them up. He wants to encourage younger men and women to give them some attention.
MILFs do come to his show. He says they’re sometimes accompanying their kids, but some also come as fans.
He even incorporated them into his advertising. Gravy bragged on Instagram that he talked his record label into buying advertising space on the website PornHub. The idea started because he would hear jokes about how the website has banner ads that say “local MILFs are waiting for you.”
“We could do the exact thing but say, ‘These MILFs want you to listen to Yung Gravy,’” he says.
The ad campaign has been effective, with fans sharing screenshots of the ad online, he adds.
Gravy shows get rowdy and have a lot of energy, and sometimes the venues he plays aren’t happy about it. He doesn’t care, though, because his fans love it.
“We like to do a lot of things other artists don’t do,” he says. “I usually give out food to the audience. In the past, we’ve made pancakes, we’ve given people cups of cereal and poured milk in them.”
Gravy’s shows might also tend to the romantic side of things. Earlier this year, he did a Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything” forum), and a fan said he proposed to his fiancée at a show and invited Gravy to the wedding. He couldn’t make it to the ceremony, he says.
“I wanted to go real bad,” Gravy adds. “I had the suit and everything,” noting that he planned to wear Versace.
Gravy’s album Sensational opens with the song “Gravy for Pope.” What would he do if he were in charge of the Catholic Church?
“Don’t hit any girls in the mosh pit. Everyone has to be hydrated at all times, so everyone has to always have the drip,” he says. “Make the religion about respecting other people.”
Gravy says that after the Eugene show he might come out to party — and when looking for a party, he looks for nice people and something unique.
Yung Gravy with special guests perform at McDonald Theatre 9 pm Saturday, Oct. 12; $25.