On Monday, news broke that hard times had befallen teen rapper and YouTube personality Matthew “MattyB” Morris. MattyB had been busted for some unspecified infraction, resulting in a trip to the principal’s office and a grounding from his central pursuit, the internet. What could it have been? The stains on his shirt were the only clues.
We speculated on Monday that, given the nature of MattyB’s online persona, this whole thing could totally be a publicity stunt. After all, what kid gets grounded from the internet, effective right after he posts just one more photo for his fans?
So sorry guys. I'll explain when I can pic.twitter.com/DQCeyv5cua
— MattyBRaps (@MattyBRaps) October 3, 2016
And yeah, it was apparently all a stunt. The faux-grounding was meant to hype up MattyB’s new video, “Live for Today,” which shows the kid mildly breaking all kinds of school rules and eventually starting a food fight. Now that’s gangsta.
Thanks for the support! Finally got ungrounded! #FreeMattyB This link explains everything: https://t.co/OMtHehXrKR pic.twitter.com/LckG2ivTtW
— MattyBRaps (@MattyBRaps) October 5, 2016
The crap on his shirt was just food from the video shoot. No one was harmed in the making of the video, and it appears no tweenage YouTube sensations were imprisoned.
While dumb, the stunt totally worked. MattyB’s grounding tweet got tens of thousands of RTs, and the video has already been watched 200,000 times. Not to mention all the free press he got (sorry!) and the “limited edition #FreeMattyB” shirts he sold.
The kid knows marketing. Gotta give ‘im that.