âThis dude lame.â
âBruh is so cringey.â
âFind a job.â
Those are just a few of the recurring comments on Drew Walls' lifestyle videos.
The saying âall publicity is good publicity" rings true for Walls. From the most hated online to the most beloved, Drew Walls was just doing him regardless of the response. Known for being the guy who sets up tripods in Target and records lifestyle videos, Walls had social media up in arms writing think pieces and spewing hate when one of his lifestyle videos went viral in October.
While there was a small sliver of people defending him, Walls was mostly met with slander and he didn't respond well to it.
"I was blocking people left and right," Walls tells Complex. "I ain't used to this. I didn't wanna see it. Instagram, they were just going in and I just wasn't used to the hate. I went viral before for my fitness transformation and that was cool but this was different because all the trolls and stuff like that. So I was blocking people."
Although the hate did affect him, Walls didn't stop his content creation. He battled through the negativity and eventually, the tune started to change in large part to NBA and NFL Twitter.
"It was really NBA Twitter who really did it. NBA Twitter and NFL Twitter," Walls says. "With the Jalen Hurts memes and they had a whole bunch of people. They were saying I look like Donovan Mitchell. These folks are crazy but they turned me up."
Walls was everywhere on sports Twitter (X). From teams like the Orlando Magic using him as a meme, the NFL promoting its last day of Red Zone, and most importantly, a paid promotion of the NFL Playoffs Divisional Round by ESPN, Walls had flipped the hate into a bag. To put the cherry on top, Drake decided to do his own verison of a Drew Walls video.
We sat down with Drew Walls to talk about how social media hated him into a bag, his response when Drake posted him, his ESPN deal, his life growing up, and more.
(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity)
Who is Drew Walls?
I'm a normal guy. I like recording content. I grew up in Chicago and I moved to Wisconsin when I was in middle school. My mom moved me and my little brother up here so we can have a better life. I was an athlete. I played basketball, football, and then when I went to college for basketball. I played a little bit but then I had my daughter when I was 20 so I had stopped.
I went to school to be a firefighter. So I done been through like a whole bunch of different avenues. I was a firefighter. I do personal training. I'm a real estate agent as well, but the thing I enjoy most is doing content. I started doing content in 2019. That's when I like how my big like transformation with fitness. Like I started out as as a fitness content creator and then when the pandemic hit, I created my personal training business and I started hitting the ground with that. And then last is when I started doing the lifestyles.
Did you see yourself breaking the internet like this?
I've always been like a go-getter. I always told myself I'm gonna do this. I always been the one to be ambitious. I truly believe like if I kept doing it and I talked to God, something gotta happen.
Like I have been through so much in my life, I gotta catch a break but to see it go to a Drake post man... nah, I ain't see it go to that.
You said you've been through a lot in your life. Can you expand on that? What are some things that have challenged you in your journey?
Growing up in Chicago with a single mom, who was on drugs like those type of things. Just coming from nothing and then just making my own way. People joke and they say whatever they say on the internet, but I pride myself on being humble and coming from the bottom. My personal training business is called "Nothing was Given" because I didn't have nothing and everything that I got, I had to work for.
People could say all you did was set up a tripod or this and that but you still gotta put work in with whatever you're doing. So just coming from that background, not having my dad, mom being on drugs and just not having the life that most people have, that's really pushed me to be the person I am today for sure.
Take me through the first viral video. Obviously, there were a lot of negative comments. How did you react to that initially?
The first video went viral when I had the red jacket on. When that first video went viral, one dude had posted it on Twitter and got like 43 million views by clowning me. I was blocking people left and right. I ain't used to this. I didn't wanna see it. Instagram, they were just going in and I just wasn't used to the hate. I went viral before for my fitness transformation and that was cool but this was different because all the trolls and stuff like that. So I was blocking people.
It was crazy like my phone was blowing up. It was a lot to handle. But then the second time when I had on the trench coat and everybody was like, he looked like James St. Patrick, I was cool then. I was getting flamed on Twitter and everybody was talking that I had to set the tripod up and go back. But second time, I just took it on the chin. You could start to see everybody was like OK, he's not folding like I respect him now.
Like you said, a lot of people were clowning you that you were setting up a tripod in public. First off, how long does that process take? Do people stop and watch you as you do it?
It's just me and my tripod. When I get my shots I just lock in basically like a movie director would. I'm not saying I'm a movie director but just like anybody who's doing content would. People be looking at me all the time and they be staring but this is what I do. People be like he had to park and stuff like, yeah of course, I had to park, get out, set that joint up, get back in the car park again, then start the video. But like the videos don't be taking that long honestly. When I go to Target, I know which angles I want. I know what I want to get and then I'll be in and out.
It'll probably take me like 20 minutes inside the store to get what I want. So yeah, it's cool but people defnitely be staring. A couple of people will be asking me like, 'dude, what are you flming a video for? What do you do?' And then I tell them I create content.
At this point you gotta have people that recognize you, no?
I went out on Saturday after Drake posted the video and I kid you not like seven people where I Iive at was like, 'are you Drew Walls? Can I take a picture with you?' Like I took like seven pictures that night. I went to Chicago for New Year's and it was like six people there that was like, 'aren't you the guy from Twitter? Aren't you he guy from TikTok?'
What's your message to the people that hated on you online? There were a lot of "we hated this man into a check tweets" last week.
I appreciate them. We locked in because without the hate, I wouldn't be here honestly because they turned me up, I ain't gonna lie. They did, they turned me up to a whole level. The trolls. Twitter. It was really NBA Twitter who really did it. NBA Twitter and NFL Twitter. With the Jalen Hurts memes and they had a whole bunch of people. They were saying I look like Donovan Mitchell. These folks crazy but they turned me up. Shout out to them.
How did the first deal with ESPN come about?
That was my first one. And they had hit me up last Monday. So first off backstory, ESPN hit me up on Jan. 1 and they got on Zoom and it was like, we love your work, everybody in here, we love what you're doing. We want you to do a lifestyle video video for us for the Wild Card Game.
I'm like, cool. OK, let's do it. And I'm like, 'what's the budget?' They were like 'this is not gonna be a paid campaign.' So me and my manager, we slept on it. We came back like, nah we gonna bet on ourselves this year. Like if ESPN already reaching out Jan. 1, the possibilities is endless for the rest of the year, you know what I'm saying?
After that initial offer, they came back two weeks later like 'we're coming back with some money, we want you to do it for the Divisional Round.' I'm like, that's crazy. So they had me do a lifestyle video, going to get snacks and stuff for the Texans-Ravens game. When I posted the screenshot on Twitter and then I had posted it on my Instagram with a photo dump, everybody was like 'we hated this man into an NFL check.'
Let's talk about the Drake post. How did you feel when you got that notifcation?
I was up at 2 a.m. Friday night, early Saturday morning and I'm just up in my bed and I seen he had liked one of my videos. You had to like scroll down to see cause I had posted in the summer and I was like 'Drake just liked one of my video.' He seen the "Virginia Beach" and I was like 'OK, he locked in.' So the next one,
I go to sleep, wake up, and then I seen this n***a had tagged me in a video. I'm like, 'ain't no way' and it's like how he did it too. Like he said, 'Drew Walls you tweaking my boy, you got me on my bullshit.' I couldn't believe it. I'm like, there's no way. He is like the biggest rapper in the game. Like you could say top five all time. Like that was crazy.
I'm sure your phone was blowing up after that?
It was. My phone was blowing up. Like my Instagram froze, my TikTok froze, my Twitter was freezing. It was crazy bro. I got reached out by an NBA player. It was just crazy. I'm like this is wild.
You said an NBA player?
Yeah. one NBA player had hit me. He wanted to reach out to see if we could do some work together and stuff like that. You gotta keep it low key until they set in stone.
What's your goal with this content creation and new fame? What are you aiming for?
I got big goals. I want partnerships with big brands. I want to work with the NBA, I want to work with the NFL. I want to be in commercials. I want to be biggest lifestyle creator to do it on Instagram.
I feel like there's a lot of people that do lifestyle videos but ain't nobody set a tripod outside Target like me. I'm not saying that like to diss nobody and nothing like that, I just feel like I've created my own lane within lifestyle content creation.
I'm talking like I want Super Bowl commercials. I want to take it to that level. I just want to do it for my daughter. I want to do it for my family. That's really why I do what I do. I love recording stuff but like at the end of the day, I came from nothing. I want to make sure my daughter got everything that I've never had.
Before we get out of here, I gotta ask about this tweet that you edited three times to Teanna Trump?
I was just like there's no way that she tweeted me talking about come set the tripod up over here. So like I'm in this little group thing and they were like, 'you should make this tweet and then you should edit it. Act like you're stuttering and act like you're nervous. It's gonna go viral.'
I edited my tweet twice and lo and behold, there were screenshots saying Teanna got him shaking like a stripper. He nervous. I think the tweet got like 11 or 12 million views right now on Twitter.
