Rockstar Riley, the Waffle House employee whose rap about the chain went viral on social media, says the company fired him after he refused to wipe his social media presence clean.
Riley arrived for his shift at the Sandy Springs, Georgia location on Roswell Road on Friday, Aug. 14, and was terminated, according to TMZ. The reason given: he kept making content in his Waffle House uniform with the restaurant visible behind him, and he would not take it down.
The conflict traces back to a couple of days after Riley's July 14 interview with TMZ, when a Waffle House area manager reached out and ordered him to delete all social media posts made while wearing the company uniform. Riley declined and, rather than pulling the content, continued shooting more.
"Painful, disappointing, and honestly hard to process," Riley said of his dismissal.
The termination ends a run that started when Riley was 15. Just last month, he told TMZ that even a $1 million record deal would not have been enough to make him walk away, calling the work environment one that "feels like a community."
His song "Waffle Options," released earlier this year, went viral — but it wasn’t his first track inspired by the restaurant. He also released tracks like "Pull Drop Mark" and "Power Hour" that he had planned to pitch to upper management for possible placement on jukeboxes in the restaurants.
Following the firing, Riley launched a GoFundMe for fan support.
