King Yella is making it clear he has no plans to work a regular job, even after admitting that he is currently broke. In a new clip circulating this week, the Chicago rapper doubled down on refusing a nine to five, insisting he will get back on his feet his own way rather than clock in at Walmart, Amazon, or behind the wheel of a truck.
King Yella did not knock anyone who works those jobs. He was careful to say there is nothing wrong with driving trucks or working, that to each his own, and that plenty of people get up and grind honestly every day. His point was that it is not for him. As a known face, he said, a nine to five is simply not his lane, and he plans to figure it out through the lifestyle he already lives. There is nothing wrong with driving trucks, he repeated, before adding that it would be wrong for him specifically to be the one doing it.That is where his comments got pointed. King Yella leaned on a familiar street philosophy, noting that people always say to get money but never say how to get it. In his words, as long as you are getting some paper, the method is your own business. He said he has been down before and will bounce back the same way he always has, making clear that he will not be trading his way of earning for a warehouse badge or a delivery route. He is just down at the moment, he stressed, and that does not mean he is out.
Over the past week, King Yella has been unusually open about hitting rock bottom, sharing emotional videos in which he said he lost everything and felt like he failed his son, who is currently locked up and facing the possibility of prison. That raw admission of being broke is what kicked off the wider conversation, and it quickly turned into a debate about whether he should just take a normal job to get back on his feet.
That is when Wack 100 and DJ Akademiks entered the picture. After the broke admission spread, the two weighed in on King Yella’s situation, with Akademiks reacting to it directly on his stream under the blunt framing that the rapper was down bad. King Yella clearly heard it, because in the clip he calls both of them out by name, telling Wack 100 and Akademiks flatly that he will not be driving trucks and will not be working at Walmart or Amazon. It played less like a plea for sympathy and more like a line in the sand.
For those unfamiliar, King Yella, born Simone Lewis, is a Chicago rapper and internet personality who came up in the early wave of the city’s drill scene. He built a name on raw, unfiltered street records like “Swagg Check,” “Ready Set Go,” and “How I Do It,” and expanded his profile through VladTV interviews and a heavy online presence built on strong opinions. His life has mirrored the grit in his music. He survived being shot twice during a 2016 music video shoot in Chicago and later served time in prison before returning and rebuilding much of his visibility through YouTube and commentary. When he talks about his lifestyle and his way of getting money, that history is the context.
Predictably, the clip split people down the middle. Some respected King Yella for refusing to fake a version of himself he is not, viewing it as him staying honest about who he is rather than performing humility for the internet. Others pushed back hard on the message, arguing that there is no shame in honest work and that doubling down on the streets, especially with a son already caught in the system, sends the wrong signal. The line about people saying to get money without saying how has been the most debated part, precisely because of what it seems to imply.
It is a tension that comes up often in the culture, the pull between pride in an identity built on the streets and the practical reality of needing steady income when the music money dries up. King Yella just happens to be saying the quiet part out loud, and doing it while naming names.
What is clear is that King Yella is not interested in softening any of it. He framed his current struggles as a temporary dip, not a permanent condition, and he made a point of saying his circumstances do not define him. Whether that confidence turns into an actual comeback or simply keeps him in the same cycle is the real question underneath the bravado. For now, a man who says he is down bad is betting everything on getting back up his own way, and he wants Wack 100, Akademiks, and everyone else to know a nine to five is not part of the plan.
