Born as John Whitfield on May 2nd, 1992, in Atlanta Georgia, DC Young Fly is a rapper and internet personality. Young Fly’s beginnings as a popular person within rap and pop culture started out with the emergence of the popular social media platform, Vine.
Early Life
Much like many other popular artists from Atlanta, Young’s beginnings weren’t all that great. From a young age, Whitfield had seen what drugs and crime had done to his beloved neighborhood. And it seemed that there was very little hope for the talented artist.
Since the age of 13, Whitfield did very little to escape the crime and he even got into it. His stage name, the DC part, is the actual acronym of his gang which was “Da Crew”.
“Da Crew” was one of Adamsville’s rising crews that got into rap and crime. But things weren’t all that serious from a younger age. While Whitfield did endure a couple of family tragedies, notably the murder of his brother and the passing of his father, Whitfield was fortunate enough to be gifted musical talent.
He didn’t take his brother’s murder in 2011 and got a tattoo to remember him by. This tattoo would be the turning point of Whitfield’s life. Since 2011, Whitfield began rapping.
Early Success As A Rapper
Whitfield’s career didn’t start as a rapper but as a Viner. Viners are people that posted videos on the then-popular platform Vine. This platform was very hot among younger Americans and a lot of people used it on a daily basis. It was Whitfield’s comical talents that made him extremely popular on Vine.
He would create short six-second videos mocking and roasting popular celebrities and these videos would get millions of views. Some of the people that Whitfield would roast were Kevin Hart, LeBron James, and even rappers Meek Mill and Drake.
A year later, Whitfield got an opportunity to express his musical talent. In that same year, he released his first single “Westside Connections”. With the release of his debut single, his Vine and newfound rap fame launched Whitfield’s career. As a stage name, he would adopt the initials of his gang followed by Young Fly. In 2015, his second song, “M.A.P” saw a nice debut success and in 2016 he released another two singles, “Right Now” and “No Weed”.
It was about that time when Vine shut down leaving a lot of creators without a platform to entertain their audiences. Whitfield saw the opportunity to stay relevant through YouTube and other means. But he quickly found himself a career in television, with MTV hiring him for his comedic sketches. Soon after, MTV gave Whitfield a debut on “Nick Cannon Presents” Wild ‘N Out”.
The aim of the series would be for two teams of comedians to go after one another. The comedians were supposed to use improvisational comedy to get the better of each other. Whitfield joined in season 8 and would remain a recurring member all the way to season 13.
It was about that time when Whitfield also worked on his YouTube channel. His channel analytics shows that his audience followed him to the popular video-sharing platform. All this fame meant that MTV would soon give Whitfield his very own host role. The show in question was “TRL”, with the premier in 2017.
Career Beginnings and Highlights
Although he made his name through Vine and rap, YouTube and MTV would be the main sources of income for the young comedian. With millions of viewers on his new show, and upwards of 30 million YouTube views on his YouTube channel, Whitfield’s name was only going to get bigger and bigger.
And while he had his hands full, that didn’t stop him from fulfilling his rap dream. So, in 2017, Whitfield worked hard to release two rap albums. The album’s titles were “The 85 South Live Variety Show” and “Supplying Pressure”. Some of the more popular songs from both albums are “FawwwkUMean”, “Don’t Play With Me”, and “Trust Issues”. Many of the songs from the first album were actual samples from his work with MTV.
Although Whitfield has a somewhat successful career as a comedian and rapper, he is also an actor. His acting career launched with “#DigitalLivesMatter” and “Almost Christmas”. He also has a couple of television appearances in popular shows such as “Dead House”, “Mann and Wife”, and “In the Cut”.
Personal Life
Whitfield isn’t alone in this world. Quite the contrary, he and his girlfriend, Jacky Oh, are in a pre-marriage relationship. They also have a daughter, Nova, that was born in 2016.
Jacky, like Whitfield, is an internet and television personality. Her career as an actress, model, television, and Instagram personality will certainly add to their financial wealth once they get married. Since both are very similar people, they had in fact met on the set whilst filming “Wild ‘N Out”. Ever since then, they’ve been in a healthy relationship and living in LA. Their daughter has appeared in numerous YouTube videos on Whitfield’s YouTube channel.
DC Young Fly Net Worth
Varies estimates put DC Young Fly’s net worth somewhere between $2 and $5 million. Although he has accumulated most of his worth through rapping and acting, it is his focus on comedy with MTV that has impacted him the most. MTV helped Whitfield launch his career and celebrity status. With more than 3.2 million Instagram followers and 500k Twitter followers, it’s safe to say that Whitfield has amassed quite the audience.