Lud Foe

Lud Foe was born Will James Akins in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on July 15, 1996. He has not revealed much on social media about his parents or his girlfriend. He does have a son named Zayden—born March 3, 2018—with his partner.

Being born in one of the worst African-American neighborhoods on the west side of Chicago, Illinois, Lud Foe used to carry a gun and was also the victim of racial profiling by the police. He dropped out of school after he assaulted faculty members and another boy. He was sent to a juvenile detention center and this was a turning point in his life. While in the center, he started writing multiple rap songs every day. This brutal and rough start to his life became a driving force for Lud Foe’s creativity and is reflected in all his songs.

After being released from prison, Will Akins had an accidental chance encounter with music producer Kid Wond3r, at a tattoo shop. Kid Wond3r recognized the young kid's talent and gave him his contact details. This was the beginning of a long lasting friendship as Kid Wond3r not only produced Lud Foe’s first song but most of his discography to date. Initially, Kid created the beats and Lud rapped over instrumentals he found on YouTube. Once both of them were happy they combined the rap with Kid’s beats and music was born.

Lud Foe began to really burst into the hip-hop scene after starting to release music videos on the hip-hop YouTube channel ‘Elevator’, in 2015-2016. In 2016, he released the mix-tape ‘Boochie Gang’ in memory of his uncle, which was a major success. Following that, on March 12, 2016, Kid Wond3r released Lud Foe’s music video ‘Cutting Up’. The song and video almost went viral and has more than a staggering 27 million views to date. The aggressive lyrics gave him instant recognition. Music videos like ‘Cooling With My Shooters’ and ‘Still’ only cemented his legacy as one of the best upcoming rappers out of Chicago.

On May 4, 2016, Lud Foe also created his solo eponymous YouTube channel, although he only started to post videos in 2017. On January 9, 2017, he released his first video ‘Kill Sum’ on the channel. It was not a success at all and barely received 4k views. He would have more success later in the month with ‘Fvcked Up’. While 2017 started off slow for the rapper, he tasted massive success with the release of his singles ‘Ghetto Love’, ‘No Chill’, and ‘Recuperate’ which became some of the best-selling singles of the year. Recovering after a near fatal accident in March 2017, ‘Recuperate’ became the biggest hit of his career.

At the end of 2017, Lud Foe released his second album ‘No Hooks II’. It was another major success as singles like ‘Alphabet’, ‘Water’, and ‘Suffer’ became hip-hop chart toppers. His music video ‘New’ also received more than 5.5 million views on YouTube. Riding high on the success, Foe has gone on to release music videos like ‘Hit A Lick’ and ‘Hustle in Me’ in 2018. The latter released on August 17, 2018, is on its way to become his first major hit of the year.

Lud Foe was involved in a life-threatening car accident on March 5, 2017, when he crashed with a truck. He later recovered after surgeries and therapy. He was also arrested in December 2017, with charges of domestic violence after getting violent with his then-pregnant girlfriend and her mother. He was released a few days later against a US$ 5000 bail. The matter was later resolved quietly.