Biography & Early Wealth Journey
Gravy reached his biggest mainstream audience with the 2022 single "Betty (Get Money)," which interpolated Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and became his first Billboard Hot 100 hit. His albums and collaborative projects include "Sensational," "Gasanova," "Marvelous," the "Baby Gravy" series with bbno$, and the country-influenced "Serving Country." Along the way, Gravy has worked with performers including Lil Wayne, Juicy J, T-Pain, Chief Keef, Shania Twain, Zac Brown, and Brantley Gilbert. He has also expanded his public profile through major tours, brand campaigns, viral social-media appearances, and his relationship with creator Ari Kytsya.
Early Life and Education
Matthew Raymond Hauri was born on March 19, 1996, in Rochester, Minnesota. His father, Peter Johannes Hauri, was a Swiss-born psychologist and noted sleep researcher who worked at the Mayo Clinic and became known for his research into insomnia, while his mother, Cynthia, worked in psychiatry. Through his father, Matthew also holds Swiss citizenship. Peter Hauri died in 2013 after suffering a serious brain injury in a fall when Matthew was 16.
Gravy graduated from Mayo High School in 2014 and attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he studied marketing. During college, he worked on branding projects and experimented with small business ventures while becoming increasingly interested in music. He has cited the rise of SoundCloud artists including Lil Yachty and Lil Peep as evidence that musicians could build careers directly through the internet without following a traditional industry path.
SoundCloud Breakthrough
Hauri began releasing music under the name Yung Gravy while still attending college. Rather than immediately showing his face, he initially cultivated an intentionally mysterious online identity and focused on songs that combined trap beats with vintage samples, exaggerated romantic boasts, and comedic lyrics. His 2016 EP "Mr. Clean" included the title track, which incorporated elements of the Chordettes' 1954 song "Mr. Sandman" and gradually developed a huge online following.
He followed with the mixtape "Thanksgiving's Eve" and projects including "Yung Gravity" and the first "Baby Gravy" EP with Canadian rapper bbno$. "Mr. Clean" and "1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot" both became enduring early hits and eventually received platinum certifications. By 2017, Gravy had completed his marketing degree and decided to pursue music full-time rather than take a conventional business job.
His education proved unusually relevant to the career he created. Gravy approached his stage name, visual image, social-media persona, merchandise, and intentionally absurd humor as interconnected parts of a brand. That ability to market himself independently helped him convert SoundCloud listeners into ticket buyers and ultimately attracted interest from the traditional record industry.
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"Sensational" and "Gasanova"
Gravy signed with Republic Records and released the EP "Snow Cougar" in 2018. The project included "1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot" and helped establish the sound that would carry into his first full-length studio album, "Sensational," released in 2019. The album included "Magic," "Gravy Train," and "Whip a Tesla" and featured guests including Juicy J, Lil Baby, Pouya, and bbno$.
In 2020, Gravy released "Gasanova," which included one of his biggest early streaming songs, "Oops!" He continued mixing hip-hop with melodies and samples inspired by records made decades before he was born, giving his music a deliberately nostalgic quality even as it spread primarily through TikTok and streaming services. The contrast between his throwback production, low baritone voice, and absurdly modern lyrics became his signature.
Gravy also demonstrated a willingness to collaborate well outside a single branch of hip-hop. His projects have included artists ranging from Chief Keef and Juicy J to T-Pain and Dillon Francis. Those collaborations helped him maintain a crossover audience that included mainstream rap listeners, college crowds, pop fans, and people who primarily discovered his songs through social media.
"Betty (Get Money)"
Gravy achieved his biggest commercial breakthrough in 2022 with "Betty (Get Money)." The song prominently interpolated Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up," combining one of the internet's most recognizable songs with Gravy's usual playful lyrics and nostalgic production. "Betty" went viral on TikTok and became Gravy's first single to enter the Billboard Hot 100, eventually reaching #30.
The song also performed internationally and received a platinum certification in the United States. It served as the lead single from Gravy's 2022 album "Marvelous," which also included "C'est La Vie," a collaboration with bbno$ and Rich Brian. The success pushed Gravy beyond his earlier internet and college-tour audience and gave him a genuine mainstream pop hit.
"Betty" also created an unusual legal dispute. Astley sued Gravy and several collaborators in 2023, arguing that although the underlying composition of "Never Gonna Give You Up" had been licensed, the new recording improperly imitated Astley's distinctive voice. The parties reached an out-of-court settlement later that year, with the financial terms remaining confidential.
Baby Gravy and bbno$
One of the longest-running partnerships of Gravy's career has been with Canadian rapper bbno$, whose real name is Alexander Gumuchian. The pair first released the "Baby Gravy" EP in 2017 and developed a comedic musical partnership built around rapid-fire exchanges, intentionally ridiculous lyrics, and upbeat production. They followed with "Baby Gravy 2" and songs including "Welcome to Chilis," "shining on my ex," and "Whip a Tesla."
The duo released "Baby Gravy 3" in 2023. The 12-song project included "Goodness Gracious," "You Need Jesus," "Super Smash Bros.," "No Way Jose," and "Nightmare on Peachtree Street." By that point, Gravy and bbno$ were not merely occasional collaborators but close friends whose joint catalog had generated hundreds of millions of streams.
Their partnership has also extended to touring and viral appearances away from music. The chemistry works in part because each artist has built a career around taking the business of music seriously without presenting the music itself as overly serious. Their willingness to embrace comedy and internet culture has helped both performers maintain unusually engaged younger audiences.
"Serving Country"
Gravy made an unexpected stylistic pivot with the 2024 album "Serving Country." After years of combining trap music with oldies and funk, he began incorporating country instrumentation, melodies, lyrical themes, and collaborators into his existing sound. Gravy said the shift came partly from becoming bored with repeating the same musical formula and wanting to challenge himself with something substantially different.
The album included "Clementine," "Lone Ranger," "I Went to Jail in Georgia," "Soundcloud Cowboy," and "Back on That Horse." It also featured Zac Brown on "My Garage" and "Love You for Leavin'," Brantley Gilbert on "Cop a Truck," Juicy J on "Whoa Nelly," and Shania Twain on "White Claw." Dylan Marlowe and Gravy also collaborated on "Boys Back Home."
Rather than abandoning rap completely, Gravy treated country as another collection of sounds and cultural references that could be absorbed into his established persona. The project allowed him to expand his live repertoire while working with musicians far outside the SoundCloud scene that had launched his career. It also demonstrated that nostalgia remained central to his music even when the source material shifted from vintage soul and pop toward country.
Later Music and Touring
After "Serving Country," Gravy continued releasing music rather than remaining exclusively in the country lane. His 2025 releases included "I Write Hymns Not Travesties," "Debbie," and "SUPA GOOD!!!," which was connected to the animated film "Dog Man." In 2026, he released singles including "HBO," "my ch!ck," and "my b!tch," continuing to alternate between humorous hip-hop, pop influences, and the sample-heavy sound associated with his earlier work.
Touring has become a major component of Gravy's business. His professional touring biography credits him with more than seven billion streams, five million units sold, four platinum singles, ten gold singles, and ten sold-out tours across North America, Europe, and Australia. His concerts lean heavily into the comedy and audience interaction associated with his online persona, helping turn listeners who discovered individual viral songs into repeat concertgoers.
Gravy has also performed at major festivals, state fairs, colleges, and large entertainment events. His touring strategy has been particularly well suited to his core audience because he built much of his early following on university campuses and through social platforms dominated by younger listeners. Over time, that circuit expanded into increasingly large headline tours.
Musical Style and Sampling
Gravy's music is distinguished by his low baritone delivery and his tendency to build songs around instantly recognizable sounds from earlier decades. "Mr. Clean" drew heavily from "Mr. Sandman," while "Gravy Train" incorporated Maxine Nightingale's "Right Back Where We Started From." His biggest hit, "Betty (Get Money)," reworked the music associated with Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
His influences stretch well beyond contemporary rap. Gravy has cited old-school soul, funk, pop, and hip-hop artists while also drawing inspiration from modern rappers. That mix has allowed him to create songs that can feel simultaneously familiar and absurdly contemporary.
The humor is equally important to his style. Gravy frequently uses food references, intentionally exaggerated flirting, pop-culture jokes, and references to older women, or "MILFs," as recurring parts of his public persona. Rather than separating his songs from his social-media personality, he has built a career in which the music, comedy, artwork, videos, fashion, and online posts all reinforce the same deliberately ridiculous character.
Brand Partnerships and Martha Stewart
Gravy's internet-friendly personality has produced a significant endorsement and advertising business outside recorded music. He has worked on campaigns with brands including Samsung, Venmo, Jimmy John's, Audible, and Urban Outfitters. Those deals supplement his earnings from streaming, touring, merchandise, and music royalties.
One of his most memorable collaborations was with Martha Stewart, whose public persona fit neatly with Gravy's long-running jokes about being attracted to older women. The two appeared together in a commercial campaign and generated substantial social-media attention. The partnership demonstrated Gravy's ability to turn a recurring joke from his songs into mainstream advertising opportunities.
Ari Kytsya
Gravy is in a relationship with social media personality and adult content creator Ari Kytsya. The two had known one another online for several years before reconnecting and beginning a serious relationship, and they became publicly linked as a couple in 2025. They subsequently began appearing regularly in each other's social-media content, attending events together, and traveling as a couple.
Their relationship has attracted particular interest because both have built highly lucrative careers through internet-driven businesses. Gravy has said that he and Kytsya make similar amounts from their respective careers and has publicly supported her work as an OnlyFans creator. Kytsya has similarly said that their understanding of social media, public attention, and unconventional career paths makes the relationship easier because neither has to explain the unusual demands of the other's work.
Personal Life
Gravy has maintained strong ties to Minnesota despite spending significant portions of his career touring and working elsewhere. His father was a respected psychologist specializing in sleep disorders, and Gravy has spoken about losing him as a teenager and the effect the experience had on his motivation. He has also discussed dealing with insomnia himself, an ironic connection to his father's professional specialty.
Away from music, Gravy's public image remains closely tied to comedy, food, fashion, sports, and social media. He has cultivated a persona that frequently blurs the distinction between Matthew Hauri and the exaggerated character of Yung Gravy, but the business behind that character has grown into a substantial operation. What began with self-recorded SoundCloud tracks during college ultimately developed into a career spanning billions of streams, international tours, major-label releases, endorsement campaigns, and collaborations across hip-hop, pop, and country music.
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