Every celebrity has their quirks, but when yours ends in a family feud and an 8.8% increase in engagement, is it genuine or all for publicity?
By Madison McCallum
The rap star Yung Gravy has a thing for MILFs. Or does he?
When he was promoting his most recent album, rapper Yung Gravy shared with Entertainment Tonight that: “On every album I put out at least one song named after a MILF. They're more experienced, they are an underserved community, may I say, and they deserve more attention so I thought I'd be the one to do it.” And looking back, it was true.
In case you aren't hip with current lingo, MILF stands for “Mother I'd Like to F*ck,” also used in the adverse effect for dads in the phrase DILF. A long observed concept, the phrase first came into fruition in 1999 as a way to describe the mother in the film American Pie, Mrs. Robinson, when the movie American Pie released in theaters in July. Singing about having soccer moms tucking him in and sucking him off, the MILF loving rapper has publicly divulged and promoted this obsession of his through not only his lyrics, but also through his “MILF hunting” videos on popular social media platform TikTok as well as his music videos.
Before the movie American Pie, a MILF would have been described as a cougar, and has been a concept seen through film history. The 1967 film The Graduate was the first notable release. According to InsideHook, the film received seven Oscar nominations, ultimately only winning Best Director, despite earning $105 million back in 1967. Toying with the concept of an older woman having relations with a younger man, this was the first film that fully addressed the idea.
Flirting with the concept of unapologetic female sexuality and attraction, Director Mike Nichol’s work shared the story of recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, as he returns to his family in California feeling lost and unsure of where his future lies. The storyline heats up when he meets the wife of his fathers business partner, Mrs. Robinson, played by the effervescent Anne Bancroft, who makes it her mission to make Braddock into a real man. But Yung Gravy’s presentation of the MILF is a subversion of that concept.
The lyrics were there for anyone to look at. “It all started in June with the lyrics, “With your baby mama at the crib I blow her back out,” he said in his song “Betty (Get Money).” Rapping about older women in other songs as well, like his song “Swimming Lessons” where he says, “Your mother taught me to sing (and f*ck), When I was only a child (a child), Shawty picked me up from school, Went to the crib and I clapped cheeks.” But none of these songs were as explosive as his decision to go to the 2022 VMAs with TikTok star Addison Rae’s mother, 43-year-old Sheri Nicole Easterling. The two had been flirting online, and it seemed like there was finally evidence that Yung Gravy liked MILFs as much as he sang about them.
On one hand, Yung Gravy’s obsession with older women would seem like a celebration of a group that typically isn’t associated with sex appeal. It was an ode to aging femininity. On the other hand, rather than embrace older women as sexual beings, instead he presents his pursuit of them as almost a public service toward them. Gravy says he reaches out to older women because he thinks not enough people are hitting them up. He wants to encourage younger men and women to give them some attention. His lyrics, rather than celebrating them, are sexually explicit. They’re pieces of meat.
To his audience, the message seemed confusing, as well as insincere. From leading MILF contests, to collecting womens bras, to his recent relationship with Easterling, people started to question whether it was a public persona rather than the truth. Was he actually into MILFs, or was this just a schtick? Which begged the questions - was the problem Yung Gravy’s message or the fact that people had a problem with it? As his relationship with Easterling unfolded, it looked more and more like the issue was him.
Kickstarting his career in 2016 with his song “Mr. Clean” on Soundcloud, the song has rounded up over 27 million streams since it was posted. Currently, the Gravy train, which is what his fans are referred to as, has brought the rapper to 9.6 M monthly listeners on Spotify. The rapper has not always been so transparent, keeping his true identity a secret for the first six months of his career back in 2017. During an interview with Depaulia the blonde heartthrob explained his concerns behind sharing his identity in the beginning, stating “ I was rapping about f—ing moms and like f—ing my dentist and all this shit.” He then proceeded to share that he worried about losing his job due to the fact his boss was a female, sharing concerns that if his rapping career didn't take off he would have nothing to fall back on.
However once his music began to grow in popularity, he began to authentically express himself and his personality through his music, highlighting in particular his love for older women. His music videos highlight this obsession, featuring older women who would be classified as MILFs, encouraging others to show older women as much love as he does. Taking his passions a step further, Gravy proudly shared that he successfully convinced his record label, Republic Records, to purchase advertising space on the adult video website PornHub, which can be accredited to the rise in MILF searches throughout the platform, making it the 4rd most searched topic on the site in 2021.
The 26-year-old took to TikTok, encouraging his viewers to bring their mothers with them to his shows. Older women seem to be fascinated and flattered by this idea, coming to his concerts and meet and greets embracing their sexuality and outwardly showing confidence by throwing their bras onto the stage. Taking advantage of the situation, Gravy started collecting the abandoned underwear and donating them to local women's shelters so that they are able to be used. In a TikTok posted on Nov 28, Gravy shared that his recent performance in Minneapolis set the new record for bras thrown on stage, with 159 undergarments. He currently has collected 678 bras, which he will then match the value of and match with a donation towards breast cancer charities.
Despite his admirable qualities, Yung Gravy’s Betty contest this past summer, brought out the worst in some people, putting himself in an unfavorable position between two separated adults. Encouraging his followers to send him pictures of their mothers, his Betty contest was inspired by his song released in June 2022, “Betty (Get Money)” which sampled Rick Astley's 1988 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Inspired by acclaimed actress and comedian Betty White, the song was dedicated to the star who passed away in Dec of 2021, as a tribute to her accomplishments, but specifically her MILF status.
Out of the thousands of submissions he received, the winning MILF happened to be Sheri Easterling. The flirtation began online, and eventually marked the first time that we actually saw Mr. Gravy in a relationship with a MILF, and when he did, it raised suspicions amongst his fans and others. The rapper became involved with recent divorcee, 43-year-old Sheri Nicole Easterling, beginning their flirtation through TikTok. Viewers stitched the flirtation with confused faces, sharing concerns about how the two could be in a relationship without ever meeting. Concern about the legitimacy also came from the fact that it was with famous TikToker Addison Rae's mom, sharing that its “too convenient” and “seems forced.” But why would people question the legitimacy of a relationship between a MILF obsessed rapper and a MILF?
Easterling and ex-husband Monty Lopez separated in mid-2021 after Lopez was discovered cheating. But once he found out about the relationship with Gravy, Lopez felt inclined to take to Instagram following the new couple's appearance on national television, saying, “Thank you Young Gravy for taking the leftovers! I would rather spend time with my daughter and 2 grandkids that SheriNicole made me abandon as a child inorder to be with her! Never let a woman make you choose between her and or your blood child! #tiredoflivinglie.”
Although the story was taken down, Twitter user @mattxiv uploaded a screenshot of the post, resulting in over 100,000 likes and 5,000 retweets by the end of the day. But Lopez didn't stop there. On Aug. 8, he proceeded to challenge the 6 ' 7’’ scrawny blonde who weighs a whopping 156 lbs to a boxing match via TikTok video. When the rawboned rapper did not respond, another video was posted, in an attempt to intimidate Yung Gravy, which resulted in acknowledgement from the star, where he responded via video stating, “I’m a grown man. I’m not going to fight you over TikTok drama.”
Yung Gravy then continued on saying, “You’ve got one of the most successful daughters in the world, and you decide to act half her age to get some attention.” Speaking of the “most successful daughters in the world,” what was Addison Rae doing during all of this nonsense? Staying out of the drama. Rae unfollowed both of her parents on all social media platforms, receiving thousands of mentions on multiple social media platforms supporting her, later thanking her fans for their kind words of support while her parents were being ridiculed in the spotlight.
After the dust settled around the new couple's relationship, the two called it quits in October, with a close friend telling US Magazine sources that, “Sheri was with Yung Gravy for publicity. It was an attention grabber.” The sources also shared that, “Both she and Yung Gravy loved the attention, but it was a brief romance that ended long before it became serious.”
Engagement with their Instagram posts peaked when major events in the relationship occurred. Rae and Yung Gravy have benefited greatly from this arrangement, gaining followers, engagement as well as streams throughout all of the chaos. Mr. Gravys instagram currently has 2.1 M followers and gets 185.7K average likes per post and 1K average comments. Which is nothing compared to social media superstar Addison Rae, who currently has 40 M followers on Instagram, receiving 754.8K average likes per post and 1.9K average comments.
Both celebrities saw spikes following the introduction of the relationship in mid June, with Yung Gravys engagement rate rising from 9.9 on June 6 to 10.4 on June 24. Addison Rae also experienced a subtle spike to her overwhelmingly successful media presence, with her instagram engagement rate rising from 2.25 in early June to 2.55 by the end of the month. An increase in engagement for Rae also occurred following Monty Lopez’s video asking to rumble with Gravy, showing an 8.8% spike over the span of three days.
Yung Gravy's final verdict is that people see the MILF stuff as inauthentic. The shortness of that relationship publicly indicated that it was all a hoax, that it was yet another publicity stunt playing into a persona he had created. And Yung Gravy might truly be into young blond girls, unlike what he said, but the real question was why the relationship blew up the way it did.
In reality, to question the relationship's legitimacy is not the biggest issue. Listeners have heard Gravy share his feelings countless times through his lyrics, so the 17 year age gap, truthfully should not be as heavy of a concern as it was made out to be. Why did everyone question it so much? Fans scrutinizing the choice in partner makes it seem as if older women are not just as beautiful as younger women, and that something that fans have egged on and encouraged is all of the sudden inappropriate.
Looking back at the events that unfolded, it seems like Yung Gravy was the only player to come out of the situation unscathed. While Addison Rae watched her father embarrass himself on the internet and her mother be ridiculed for her choice in men, Yung Gravy only benefited. Seemingly ending in the perfectly cultivated outcome for the rapper, the short relationship promoted him and his platform without any true damage to him or his reputation.
Overall, whether or not the rapper is genuinely interested in MILFs or not, he has strategically built a successful platform around this concept, which has allowed him to not only grow his social media followings, but increase his listeners and promote his music along the way. The estimated 2M net worth, MILF loving mastermind, can comfortably kick back and recite his own lyrics, “I count my loot, baby-baby, smell like money.”