A Rich, White, Drill Rapper From the Upper East Side Named Lil Mabu Has a Charting Hit With "Mathematical Disrespect"

UPDATED 5/25 12:00 p.m. ET: Lil Mabu's "Mathematical Disrespect" is now charting at No. 47 on the Hot 100, jumping 43 spots in it's second week.

As Billboard reported yesterday, Lil Mabu made his chart debut this week with his recently released track “Mathematical Disrespect.” The song debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 90.

If you're unfamiliar with Lil Mabu, here's a primer: He's an 18-year-old drill rapper from New York City whose rap style is reminiscent of Kay Flock or maybe even 6ix9ine. Unlike the majority of his New York drill counterparts, Mabu doesn't hail from Brooklyn or the Bronx. Instead, Lil Mabu is from the Upper East Side, grew up in a wealthy family, and attended an elite private school.

The track "Mathematical Disrespect"—which sees Mabu counting “one thot, two thot, three thot, four” and reciting Pi—has gotten over 8 million streams on YouTube and over 13 million streams on Spotify. Key to the track’s rise, expectedly, is its popularity on TikTok. On the track, he tells the NYPD that all his raps are "cap," references Wordle, and explains one of his lyrics in the middle of the song.

Prior to Mabu's chart rise, a New York Post piece from January noted that Lil Mabu—whose real name is Matthew DeLuca—was a "model student" who attended the Collegiate School in Manhattan, a private school on the Upper West Side whose alumni include John F. Kennedy Jr. and the late Philip Morris CEO Joseph Cullman, among others. According to its website, tuition for the 2022/2023 school year is listed at $60,400.

The Post piece also claimed that the artist’s family owns a five-bedroom condo on the Upper East Side and a home in the Hamptons. The combined value of both, at least according to this January-published rundown, is nearly $12 million.

For now, Mabu hasn't directly addressed such coverage. In "Mathematical Disrespect," however, he claims that he is able to get money while he urinates and also boasts about being an independent artist—two things that are probably much easier to do when you have wealthy parents.

Although "Mathematical Disrespect" is his first charting hit, it's not Mabu's first time going viral. Just two months ago, he released the song "Trip to the Hood," which has garnered over 11 million views on YouTube and another 11 million on Spotify. In the song's music video, he seems aware of the criticism he might get for his privileged background. He pokes fun at himself when he tells his dad he's "darting off to pursue my educational prowess" but then actually shoots a rap music video.

Neither "Trip to the Hood" or the charting "Mathematical Disrespect" are Mabu's biggest songs on streaming. His biggest song on Spotify is actually "No Snitching" which features Brooklyn drill rapper Dusty Locane and has over 75 million plays. On YouTube, his biggest song is "Throw," which has over 17 million plays and features Harlem rapper DD Osama.