The teenage hip hop prodigy Matthew Grau, who is more popular with his professional name ‘Matt Ox,’ attained global media recognition in 2017 when he was only 12 years old. By that time, he had only been active in the industry for only a year or thereabout. Then, after that, in only about two years, he had garnered over 180,000 subscribers on YouTube, with millions of video views, including over 28 million views on one of them. He also had over 10 million spins on Soundcloud.
Within that time frame also, the lad had collaborated with some of the most established names in the industry such as XXXTentacion, Valee, Chief Keef, Lil Tracy, Lil Skies, Yung Bans, and Comethazine. In addition to all these, Ox already had a studio album, an EP, and at least 10 hit singles to his credit. Read on to get the details of how the star rose to become very famous and his achievements below.
What You Need To Know About Matt Ox’s Family Background
It was on December 13, 2004, that Matt Ox was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Then, he grew up in the Lawncrest neighborhood of Northeast Philly. When he was still two years old, his father (whose name we have not been able to ascertain) committed suicide as a result of a mental issue he had. So, Matt was raised by his mother named Laurel.
Together with a yet-to-be-identified uncle of Matt Ox’s, his mother was very central in nurturing his career. She made sure he received the right kind of exposure. She also arranged for him to be homeschooled to enable him to pursue his musical career without any interference from school. It has been noised that Matt still helps out his mom with household chores at home. If he has any siblings, we are yet to get to know any of them.
Here is a video where Matt and his mom shared some moments about his past. She revealed in the video, for example, that Matt loved to dance even as a toddler:
How Did Ox Become Famous So Fast and So Early?
First off, Matt Ox’s rap talents are way beyond amazing. While he certainly still has a lot of space for growth, he brings in a lot of creative twists and turns that are rare to find in other artists in his genre. Also, he tends to blend several genres such as trap, emo, and rap music. Noted for having a horrorcore sound to his music, the lad also specializes in mumble rap. All these features in his style blend well with his super-melodic voice, making him irresistible to any audience.
The above is, no doubt, the secret behind the rising star’s burgeoning fame. But then, how did he develop those amazing musical skills this early? Given his looks, Ox became a public figure quite early, appearing in such high-brow media platforms such as The New York Times and XXLMag. As hinted earlier, he had an uncle, who was fond of him and would often take him to watch live bands and to music studios. This must be how Matt fell in love with hip hop that early, often gushing over such artists as Soulja Boy, Eminem, Marilyn Manson, and Lil B by the time he was five.
When he was 8 years old, Matt had started penning his rap lines. But the first one to be made public was entitled Pretty Penny, which was released in January 2017. The following month, Ox released another song entitled Low Key. It was followed in quick succession by such songs as Michael Myers, This N That, and Problem Child. His musical interests became so overwhelming that his mother decided he would be homeschooled to enable him to focus on his career.
Talking about his overwhelming musical interests, it is quite imperative to note that Matt Ox’s career kicked off with his 2017 single titled ‘Overwhelming,’ which went viral across the web. Given his extremely young looks and his overarching talents that go very far in belying his age, the YouTube video for ‘Overwhelming’ attracted quite a lot of attention, getting to 2 million views in just a week. After that, many music companies began to seek him out.
He released a few singles with Warner Music before finally signing with Motown Records in 2018. That same 2018 (in March), Ox was featured on XXXtentacion’s music ‘$$$.’ The music itself was a hit that helped to lift Matt Ox’s popularity further. But, apart from that, when XXXtentacion died three months after the song was released, there was a renewed media interest directed towards it, which also worked in favor of Ox’s popularity too.
How Rich Is Matt Ox?
As of late 2019, Matt Ox’s net worth was estimated at $200,000. He earned this in just a few years from many of his musical acts, including singles, an EP, an album, and many collaborations. His self-titled debut musical album was released on the Motown record label in 2018, and it has been downloaded thousands of times.
He has also released an EP entitled Oxmas during the Christmas of 2018. This piece, in which he collaborated with members of his Oxgang band (Zeus Ox and Ox Flacko), is also available on streaming platforms. His non-album singles include Overwhelming, Tesla, Messages, Athlete, and Deposits. Beside his musical career, Matt is also an entrepreneur and he sells t-shirts on the Working on Dying website.
Also Read: Top 10 Richest People in the world with full biography and details.
