After ending his recent "Trial By Fire" tour in November with erratic behaviour, rapper Yelawolf (born Michael Wayne Atha) has revealed a handful of personal changes, including a new stage name.
In taking to a newly created Instagram page, the Alabama-born MC revealed he's dropped the name Yelawolf for the initials of his given name, MWA. A lengthy caption that accompanies the post explains that he "hoaxed the 'suicide' of Yelawolf with my 'blood art," crediting the change to losing both a friend and his former manager placing him under psychiatric care:
"… they couldn't handle my vision .. I hoaxed the "suicide" of Yelawolf with my " blood art " along side a manic depressive state of mind from years of alcoholism .. after loosing my BiggieSmallz @shawtyfatt I decided to sober up and rebrand my new music as Michael Wayne Atha MWA (my given name from my beautiful mother Sheila Diane the original gangster .. named after Michael Landon and John Wayne) and shook the fuckin game .. so much so that my own X manager and wanna be father had me apprehended and thrown in the psych ward in SD .. where they tried to break me and feed me drugs for 72 hours against my will .. I lost everything,"
The news isn't all dark, as Atha says he "bounced back so fuckin hard and fast they should give me my own line of Olympic diving boards." The rapper revealed that he is "pushing 300 days sober" and is "happier than ever," in addition to putting his mother in charge of his Slumerican label, and linking up with Del the Funky Homosapien's Hieroglyphics Crew.
Atha's last full-length as Yelawolf came in 2015 with Love Story. Find his full Instagram post below.
In taking to a newly created Instagram page, the Alabama-born MC revealed he's dropped the name Yelawolf for the initials of his given name, MWA. A lengthy caption that accompanies the post explains that he "hoaxed the 'suicide' of Yelawolf with my 'blood art," crediting the change to losing both a friend and his former manager placing him under psychiatric care:
"… they couldn't handle my vision .. I hoaxed the "suicide" of Yelawolf with my " blood art " along side a manic depressive state of mind from years of alcoholism .. after loosing my BiggieSmallz @shawtyfatt I decided to sober up and rebrand my new music as Michael Wayne Atha MWA (my given name from my beautiful mother Sheila Diane the original gangster .. named after Michael Landon and John Wayne) and shook the fuckin game .. so much so that my own X manager and wanna be father had me apprehended and thrown in the psych ward in SD .. where they tried to break me and feed me drugs for 72 hours against my will .. I lost everything,"
The news isn't all dark, as Atha says he "bounced back so fuckin hard and fast they should give me my own line of Olympic diving boards." The rapper revealed that he is "pushing 300 days sober" and is "happier than ever," in addition to putting his mother in charge of his Slumerican label, and linking up with Del the Funky Homosapien's Hieroglyphics Crew.
Atha's last full-length as Yelawolf came in 2015 with Love Story. Find his full Instagram post below.
