Rapper Fetty Wap says he's sorry for making a music video that landed a New Jersey school administrator in hot water.
After the rapper released the video for his latest single "Wake Up," the Paterson school district put the Eastside High School principal of operations, Zatiti Moody, on administrative leave with pay as it investigated how the video was allowed to be shot at the school.
Fetty Wap, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, attended the school before dropping out.
"I came today to apologize," he said before the Paterson school board of education Wednesday night, an hour before the board meeting started. He left quickly, but stopped to sign autographs in the school hallway, The Paterson Press reported.
More than 100 other students, parents and community members turned up in support of Moody.
"Paterson has bigger things to worry about than a music video," said parent Terri Holness, according to The Paterson Press.
The song "Wake Up" is a stoner's anthem with lyrics like, "I ain't really trippin' over school / Let's get Wiz Khalifa high and / Get meditated, over medicated."
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It's not clear when the video was shot, but the school district said it happened during non-instructional hours.
The video shows Fetty Wap, whose real name is Willie Maxwell, rapping near trophy cases and lockers inside the halls of the school, at times with young people whizzing by on skateboards.
It also features images of people drinking out of "40 Wap" malt liquor bottles, smoking out of makeshift apple bongs, and a stripper dancing on a pole in the classroom.
No student participated in the taping of the video.
The 24-year-old rapper said in an earlier statement released by his publicist, "I went back to my old high school because I love my city. I wanted to show the students of Paterson that someone who walked those same hallways they walk everyday and sat in the same classrooms shown in the video has become successful. If I can do it, they can do it, too."
