The story behind rising rapper FAMEtheMOVIE isn’t just about music—it’s a living, breathing documentary in motion. It’s a lyrical autobiography rooted in grit, struggle, and reinvention. Born in Saint Albans, Queens, Kevin Wiggins, known by his stage name FAMEtheMOVIE, has lived every verse he raps. His story is a Queens tale, a redemption arc, and proof that resilience, talent, and timing can transform a life.
“I’m from Saint Albans, Queens, right off of Linden and Baisley,” he says. “They call it the North Side of Queens.”
That neighborhood, with its tough edges and tight communities, became the backdrop for his early years. His daily commute to Holy Cross High School was anything but typical. “Sometimes you had to fight to get to school,” he recalls. “In a week, you might have got into a physical fight three times just taking the city bus. At least for me, that’s how it was.”
Football became his anchor—his way to earn respect and build connections. “I wasn’t a small kid. I wasn’t someone you could push over, and I still found myself getting into stuff,” he says. Without a Pop Warner background, he felt behind when he joined the team. “I started playing football in high school. A lot of my teammates had played together for years, so I was playing catch up.”
What he lacked in experience, he made up for in drive. “I didn’t want to be the weakest link. I came in like, ‘Let me show y’all I know what I’m doing.’” That competitive fire helped him bond with teammates he still calls brothers today.
Music had always been present, but it wasn’t until his teenage years that he started understanding it on a deeper level. “The first rap song I really understood was Slick Rick’s ‘A Children’s Story.’ I had a cousin who put me onto it when I was about 14,” he says. “That’s when I started connecting with lyrics.”
Still, rapping wasn’t in the cards—at least not yet. Instead, life pulled him in different directions. After high school, he moved to Baltimore, where the choices he made began to catch up with him. “A lot of the decisions I made there weren’t the right ones,” he admits. “I ended up going to jail.”
Looking for a new beginning, he relocated to Miami in 2009 to be closer to his young son and the child’s mother. There, things seemed to turn. “The lifestyle is different. The music is different. There are a lot of natural motivators in Miami that just make you want to get to it.” He opened a pawn shop and focused on staying on the right path.
“I had finally set up a way to take care of myself without doing the wrong things,” he says. But temptation crept back in. “I slipped up in Miami too. I was striving for more—more cars, more jewelry, a bigger apartment. I tried to take a shortcut and it cost me.” That shortcut led to another stint in prison, this time in Michigan.
In 2017, he returned to New York, humbled but determined. “That was my reset. What I learned is there are no shortcuts. The second you try to skip the grind, something bad is bound to happen. You have to be consistent. You have to earn it.”
The door to the music industry opened in an unexpected way—through a job doing security for Busta Rhymes. “Busta went out of town for two weeks. I hit the studio with a friend who challenged me to write a few songs. I ended up making 40 tracks in two weeks,” he says. “Everybody was like, ‘If you take this seriously, you could really go somewhere.’ So I did.”
That burst of creativity resulted songs for Snow In The Nose, his debut EP. One night, he found himself performing “Pilot” in L.A. at Poppy’s nightclub. “The crowd had never heard the record before—and they went crazy,” he says. “Even Busta couldn’t believe the reaction.”
Busta was so excited by the song and the love Fame got on the record, he jumped on the remix to “Pilot.” The video starring the two is coming in a few weeks.
Meanwhile Snow In The Nose Tracks like such as “The Cure” and “Pesos” carry the weight of lived experience. “That one’s close to my heart. It’s the most lyrical I’ve ever been. It’s about being a kid from the inner city, going out on your own, making mistakes. It’s about real life.”
Now, FAME is wrapping up his follow-up project, Snow In The Nose 2, and says it marks a major step forward. “People are going to be extremely surprised and impressed at the growth from part one to part two.”
FAMEtheMOVIE is more than music—it’s a testimony to hard-won wisdom, earned scars, and the long road to self-discovery. For FAME, every line is a snapshot of where he’s been—and where he’s headed.