A 6-foot-8 marketing graduate from Rochester, Minnesota, who raps over 1960s soul samples about older women, Yung Gravy turned a SoundCloud joke into a platinum career. Born Matthew Raymond Hauri, he broke through with “Mr. Clean” in 2016, hit the Billboard Hot 100 with “Betty (Get Money)” in 2022, and in 2026 signed with BMG ahead of a 36-date North American tour. His girlfriend is model and content creator Ari Kytsya, who has been by his side since 2025, and he says a proposal is in the works. Here is his full story, from his parents and his real name to his height, his songs and his net worth.
| Date of Birth | March 19, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Age | 30 years |
| Nationality | American |
| Zodiac Sign | Pisces |
| Occupation | Rapper, Songwriter |
| Birthplace | Rochester, Minnesota, United States |
| Height | About 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) |
| Parents | Peter J. Hauri (died 2013), Cynthia Cleveland Hauri |
| Education | University of Wisconsin–Madison (marketing, 2017) |
| Girlfriend | Ari Kytsya |
| Labels | Republic Records (former), BMG |
| Years active | 2016–present |
Monet PooleBiography
Matthew Raymond Hauri was born on March 19, 1996, in Rochester, Minnesota, the home of the Mayo Clinic. His father, Peter J. Hauri, was a Swiss-born psychologist from Sirnach in the canton of Thurgau who became one of the early names in sleep research. He ran the Mayo Sleep Disorders Center in Rochester until 2000 and co-wrote the self-help book No More Sleepless Nights.
His mother, Cynthia “Cindy” Cleveland Hauri, is a psychiatrist. Peter Hauri died on January 31, 2013, aged 79, after a fall, when Matthew was 16. His father’s obituary lists three other children, David Courard-Hauri, Heidi Hauri-Gill and Katrin Kasper, alongside Matthew.
Hauri finished Mayo High School in 2014 and went on to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned a marketing degree there in December 2017. “I did learn a lot, did party a lot,” he told Boston radio host Mikey V in November 2022, adding that he was caught drinking on campus “a couple times.”
The rapping started even earlier, at a summer camp in rural Minnesota. Speaking on Power 106 Los Angeles in 2018, he said he and the other counselors would sneak into the woods after the kids went to sleep and freestyle. One night a line ended with “you could call me Yung Gravy,” and his friends decided the name on the spot. Before that, he had been rapping as Mr. Butter.
Career
Yung Gravy began uploading songs to SoundCloud in 2016, inspired by Lil Yachty and Lil Peep. At the time he was doing branding work for a startup accelerator, where one client was the food delivery app EatStreet. “I was like, you know what, I could do this for myself,” he told Mikey V, so he took a summer off and put everything into music.
His September 2016 EP Mr. Clean carried the song that made his name. He kept his face hidden for about a year and a half, posting random pictures instead. At a college party a videographer recognized his voice, the two shot the “Mr. Clean” video the next week, and it became his face reveal. The song is now certified platinum by the RIAA.
The 2017 single “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot” followed, and its hook was written in about 30 minutes. He signed with Republic Records in 2017 and teamed up with Canadian rapper bbno$ on the Baby Gravy EP that October. His first studio album, Sensational, arrived on May 31, 2019, and reached No. 52 on the Billboard 200. Gasanova matched that peak in October 2020.
He also had to pay to keep his name. Another artist who had released a few songs as Yung Gravy filed a trademark first, and after depositions, “finally decided to give him 150k to keep the name,” Gravy told Mikey V. He told Drewski on HOT 97 the same story about the roughly $150,000 payment in September 2022.
Sports teams took notice. In April 2021, the Tampa Bay Lightning engraved the title of his song “Gravy Train” on their 2020 Stanley Cup rings. In November 2022 he performed before the Minnesota Vikings’ Thanksgiving game against the New England Patriots, and in January 2023 he played the X Games in Aspen, Colorado.
Albums and Songs
“Betty (Get Money)” changed his career in 2022. The song rebuilds Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” and it debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100, his first entry on that chart. It is now platinum in the US, Canada and New Zealand and triple platinum in Australia. On HOT 97 he said his producer Nick Seeley “recreated the whole Rick Astley song in like a day.”
Betty led his album Marvelous, released on October 28, 2022, which peaked at No. 99 on the Billboard 200. He told Mikey V it was the first album where he worked on beats from scratch with producers, and he called it his best work so far. Baby Gravy 3 with bbno$ followed in August 2023.
On August 2, 2024, he released Serving Country, a country-rap album that included “White Claw” with Shania Twain and “I Write Hymns Not Travesties” featuring Brendon Urie. In 2025 he voiced the character Golem in the video game Dispatch and played the revived Vans Warped Tour in Long Beach.
On April 23, 2026, BMG announced a global recording deal with him, his first new label home since joining Republic in 2017. He released “HBO” that month and “my b!tch” after it. In September came “BAEWATCH,” whose video he co-directed with Max Brindamour. The Joyrider Tour, 36 shows across North America at venues such as Irving Plaza, the House of Blues and The Fillmore in San Francisco, starts on October 22, 2026, in Fort Lauderdale and ends on December 16.
His other gold and platinum songs include “Oops!,” “Magic,” “Whip a Tesla,” “Alley Oop” and “Rotisserie.” He has worked with Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Juicy J, Chief Keef, Dillon Francis and Martha Stewart. His sound mixes Memphis-style trap with old soul, and he names Smokey Robinson, The Blackbyrds, OutKast and Three 6 Mafia as influences.
Controversies and Disputes
Before his music took off, Yung Gravy was arrested in rural Georgia. Telling the story on Power 106 in 2018, he said police were called to a house party where the owner’s mother had reported burglars, and he was charged with burglary, criminal trespassing and drug offenses he said he had nothing to do with. He said he served probation and completed 240 hours of community service in 25 days in Montana. “1 Thot 2 Thot” was the first song he wrote after the probation ended.
In January 2023, Rick Astley sued him in Los Angeles Superior Court over “Betty (Get Money).” Gravy had a license for the song’s melody and lyrics, but Astley said the vocal imitation on the hook made listeners think he had taken part, according to BBC News. The case was settled in September 2023 on undisclosed terms, Billboard reported.
He also had a short feud with Jack Harlow, which he told SiriusXM in July 2022 started between their managers, and the two are now on good terms. Asked by Drewski whether Eminem likes him, he laughed, “I don’t think he likes me. I commented on his daughter’s post one time.”
Certifications and Honors
Yung Gravy’s biggest honors are sales certifications. “Mr. Clean,” “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot” and “Betty (Get Money)” are RIAA platinum, and “Betty” is also platinum in Canada and New Zealand and triple platinum in Australia. Six more songs, including “Magic” and “Oops!,” are RIAA gold.
His Spotify catalog has passed 3.3 billion streams, led by “Betty (Get Money)” with more than 337 million plays and “Mr. Clean” with more than 286 million. The “Gravy Train” line on the Lightning’s 2020 Stanley Cup rings remains one of the stranger tributes any rapper has received.
Girlfriend and Dating History
Yung Gravy is dating Ari Kytsya, a model and content creator. The couple went Instagram official in the summer of 2025 and have since been photographed together at a Golden Globes event in January 2026 and co-hosted a brand party at Coachella in April 2026.
He wants to marry her. At a Sports Illustrated event in Los Angeles on June 12, 2026, he told The Mirror US he is “plotting” a surprise proposal and wants it to be “real epic.” He then gave a timeline of a “wedding within 1.5, maybe 1 year” and children about two years after that.
His most talked-about romance came in 2022 with Sheri Nicole Easterling, the mother of TikTok star Addison Rae. They had flirted over direct messages, and he brought her as his date to the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2022, where they kissed on the red carpet. “I’m into MILFs and she’s kind of the queen of MILFs, so I figured it was just the perfect match,” he said there.
That pairing ended within weeks. In October 2022, a source close to Easterling told E! News it “was very short-lived and they wanted to get people talking.” Gravy later told Mikey V he had asked Martha Stewart first, and he hadn’t realized a VMAs date is seen “like their wife or something.”
Height and Appearance
Yung Gravy is between 6 feet 7 inches and 6 feet 8 inches tall, about 2.01 to 2.03 meters, which he confirmed in a 2022 SiriusXM interview. He once rapped that he was “6’6” because it flowed better. He played basketball in middle school, but he said on Power 106 that the players at Wisconsin were on another level.
Timeline
March 19, 1996: Born Matthew Raymond Hauri in Rochester, Minnesota.
January 31, 2013: His father, sleep researcher Peter J. Hauri, dies at 79.
2014: Graduates from Mayo High School.
2016: Begins posting music on SoundCloud while studying at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
September 8, 2016: Releases the Mr. Clean EP.
December 23, 2016: Releases the mixtape Thanksgiving’s Eve.
2017: Signs with Republic Records and releases “1 Thot 2 Thot Red Thot Blue Thot.”
October 11, 2017: Releases the Baby Gravy EP with bbno$.
December 2017: Earns a marketing degree from UW–Madison.
May 4, 2018: Releases the Snow Cougar EP.
May 31, 2019: Releases his debut album, Sensational, which reaches No. 52 on the Billboard 200.
February 14, 2020: Releases Baby Gravy 2 with bbno$.
October 2, 2020: Releases Gasanova, which also peaks at No. 52.
April 2021: “Gravy Train” appears on the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Stanley Cup rings.
February 4, 2022: Releases the Cake and Cognac EP with Dillon Francis.
Summer 2022: “Betty (Get Money)” debuts at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100.
August 28, 2022: Attends the MTV VMAs with Sheri Nicole Easterling.
October 2022: Easterling’s camp says the pairing was short-lived.
October 28, 2022: Releases Marvelous.
November 24, 2022: Performs before the Vikings’ Thanksgiving game.
January 2023: Rick Astley sues him over “Betty (Get Money).”
January 2023: Performs at the X Games in Aspen.
August 25, 2023: Releases Baby Gravy 3 with bbno$.
September 2023: Settles the Astley lawsuit on undisclosed terms.
August 2, 2024: Releases the country-rap album Serving Country.
2025: Voices Golem in the video game Dispatch and plays the Vans Warped Tour in Long Beach.
Summer 2025: Goes Instagram official with Ari Kytsya.
April 23, 2026: Signs a global recording deal with BMG.
April 25, 2026: Headlines Colgate University’s Springfest.
June 2026: Says he is planning a surprise proposal to Kytsya.
September 2026: Releases “BAEWATCH.”
October 22, 2026: Opens the 36-date Joyrider Tour in Fort Lauderdale.
Net Worth
Yung Gravy’s net worth is estimated at $7–10 million. Most of that comes from touring. He headlines theaters and clubs such as Irving Plaza and The Fillmore, plus college shows such as Colgate’s Springfest. Streaming adds a second layer, from about 3.9 million monthly Spotify listeners and a catalog past 3.3 billion plays, though as a label artist he doesn’t own his masters.
Brand work is the third pillar. He has made a commercial with Martha Stewart, narrated for Audible, and brands can reach his more than 10 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The $150,000 he paid to keep his name and the settled Astley case are costs that come out of those earnings.
That figure puts him above Memphis rapper EST Gee, whose net worth we estimate at $3.5–7 million, and well below Lil Yachty at $25 million. A new BMG album and the Joyrider Tour should keep it climbing into 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Yung Gravy’s real name?
His real name is Matthew Raymond Hauri. The stage name came from a freestyle line at a Minnesota summer camp.
How old is Yung Gravy?
He was born on March 19, 1996, so he is 30 years old as of October 2026. His zodiac sign is Pisces.
How tall is Yung Gravy?
He is between 6 feet 7 inches and 6 feet 8 inches tall, about 2.03 meters.
Who is Yung Gravy’s girlfriend?
He is dating model and content creator Ari Kytsya. They went public in the summer of 2025, and in June 2026 he said he is planning to propose.
Who are Yung Gravy’s parents?
His father was Swiss-born sleep psychologist Peter J. Hauri, who died in 2013, and his mother is psychiatrist Cynthia Cleveland Hauri.
Did Yung Gravy date Addison Rae’s mom?
Yes, briefly. He took Sheri Nicole Easterling to the 2022 MTV VMAs, and the pairing ended weeks later.
