Yung Gravy, rapper and University of Wisconsin-Madison alum, returned to Madison during his nationwide tour for a show at The Sylvee on Nov. 25.
The venue was filled with energy and excitement as Gravy, wearing UW-Madison merch, performed hit songs including “Betty (Get Money),” “oops!” and his latest release “Debbie.”
“We hear his music so often it somehow gets stuck in our heads…I feel like we'll end up knowing more songs than we [realize],” Julia Henckels, a UW-Madison freshman who attended the concert with a friend, told The Daily Cardinal ahead of the show. “From the videos of his concerts, It's gonna be a really good time.”
Gravy started rapping during his sophomore year at UW-Madison, releasing his debut single “Mr. Clean” on SoundCloud in 2016. The music video, filmed in fall 2017, features Gravy dancing in a bathrobe in various locations around Madison, including the State Capitol building, local laundromats and a jetski in Lake Mendota.
The song took off after the video’s release, and Gravy signed with Republic Records in November 2017, a month before graduating from UW-Madison with a marketing degree.
Since then, he’s traveled worldwide, releasing viral hits that blend trap beats with vintage music samples. He is known for his playful lyrics and smooth, flirtatious persona.
Gravy said he tries to make an effort to stop in Madison on tour and for events. Last year, he participated in a Party to the Polls event, encouraging UW-Madison students to vote early during the 2024 presidential election with a free concert and meet-and-greet at Memorial Union.
Before Tuesday’s show, The Cardinal spoke with Gravy about his time as a UW-Madison student.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How does it feel to be back in Madison?
It feels really good. I’ve been back a few times this year already, but it feels good to actually do a show this time. It’s always fun. When I came back for the first time [after graduating] I did a show on the Capitol block and it was insane. Like 12,000 people showed up, and [the organizers] didn’t expect that, so I was on the smaller stage. It was a free show…that was pretty cool. I’ve done like six or maybe seven shows here since I graduated.
Have you checked out any of the new spots here?
We just walked on State Street, so there were a lot of new things that we saw. I kind of brought [my team] all to the classic stuff. We also went to Single Stitch. I have never been there before. It’s pretty cool — new-ish, I think.
You’ve previously mentioned Nitty Gritty, State Street Brats and The Ivory Room Piano Bar as some of your favorite spots in Madison. Do you have any fond memories from those places and will you be going back anytime soon?
I’d love to. We saw [today] they’re all still there. I saw they closed 107 State, which is sad. It was a bar with pasta and stuff. We used to go there a lot. We walked by the Ivory Room, but that was closed. Kind of makes sense — weekday, early. Also walked by State Street Brats, but it was a little too early for that too. I also would love to go to Nitty Gritty. The last time I was here, I think we went to all three of those because we had more time and spent three days here for this Venmo shoot.
How much do you think Madison has changed since you were a student?
A lot. Walking down State Street, there’s a ton of new restaurants and stuff and new stores every block. Places that I used to work and a few spots that I frequented are gone. The [UW] SERF where I used to work out is a brand-new, boujee building now. They did that a while ago, after I graduated. The on-campus workout space next to Gordon’s, The Nick, used to be the SERF. It was a good, shitty vibe. It smelled like iron and nasty but it was also lit. And then it became really fancy right after I left. If I was a student now, I think it would probably be just as fun, but I miss the nostalgia of those things.
Did you have a fake I.D.?
I had like five. I got one taken at Fresh Market. The first one that got taken away was my South Carolina one, and then the KK took one too. Plus I lost one… I think they’re all gone forever now.
How were you able to balance making music while attending classes?
I was hella motivated, you know, I would go to my classes. I think I did 18 credits most of the semesters when I was actually doing music. I would just come home after class every day, and it was fun. I wanted to be a rapper, so I was going hard on it after class. I think it was just a year and a half, maybe two years, that I was here and actually working on music, and by the end of that, you know.
Did you find the 18 credits challenging?
Yeah. I was doing finance and marketing, so at that time I was pretty much just in the business school — Grainger. By the end of it, though, I did have a little bit of a hack, because I was picking digital marketing classes where a lot of the projects would be things I had already done because I was making music. So it’d be like ‘create a website, create a shop online’, all stuff I’d already done. So I had a little bit of cheat code there. But if you are learning something you're interested in, it's never that hard.
Would you ever make another music video on campus or in Madison again like the “Mr. Clean” music video?
Maybe I could do a remake of the original one in some creative way. Or if it was an actual school-related music video, it could be inspired by the Back to School movie, but with a flip on that. I wouldn’t want to just come here and shoot a random one, but maybe a flip on either of those concepts could be cool.
Do you remember the process of making that music video?
I was partying at a house on Mifflin, talking to these guys who I didn’t know at the time, and one of them recognized my voice. He was like ‘you’ve got to be Yung Gravy, dude.’ I had never revealed my face before, and he just guessed, like he’d heard my music. I wasn’t even big at all, but big enough, I guess. I was like ‘wow.’ It was the first time anyone ever recognized my voice. And he had this group called Rooftop Studios, a kid named Charlie Hartwell, and we just bonded over that. And then the next day we met up and planned the Mr. Clean video, and then he came on tour as my videographer for three years. I said I don't really want to spend money. I want to make it look lit and fun. So let's get a horse and a jet ski and go to a car wash. We spent like 70 bucks total for the whole video, because they had the equipment already. And then we edited the whole video at the College Library.
Do you have any advice to current UW students about navigating college life while pursuing your dreams?
There’s just so much shit going on [in Madison]. It’s like the coolest place ever. I still come back 10 years later and freak out about it and show my girlfriend everything in the town, so you’re in that cool of a place, take advantage of everything while you’re here. I was working 20 hours a week doing 18 credits and making rap, and I would stay up late. If you care about something a lot, it doesn't really matter. You can find the time for it.
Ella Hanley is the college news editor for The Daily Cardinal. She previously served as associate news editor and wrote for the city and state news desks. She is a fourth-year journalism and criminal justice student. She has written breaking news and in-depth on Trump administration funding cuts to UW-Madison and local Madison people and organizations. Her work reporting on Yung Gravy has been featured in the New York Times. Follow her on Twitter at @ellamhanley.
