Rockstar Riley, the Waffle House employee who gained viral attention for his rap dedicated to the restaurant chain, says he has been fired after refusing to erase his social media content.
According to TMZ, Riley showed up for his scheduled shift at the Sandy Springs, Georgia, location on Roswell Road on Friday, Aug. 14, where he was informed that his employment had been terminated. He claims the company cited his continued creation of videos while wearing his Waffle House uniform with the restaurant visible in the background, along with his refusal to remove the posts.
The dispute reportedly began just days after Riley’s July 14 interview with TMZ, when a Waffle House area manager allegedly instructed him to delete every social media post featuring him in the company’s uniform. Riley chose not to comply and instead kept producing similar content.
Reflecting on the experience, Riley described losing his job as “Painful, disappointing, and honestly hard to process.”
His dismissal brings an end to a journey that began when he started working at Waffle House at just 15 years old. In an interview with TMZ last month, Riley even said he wouldn’t leave the company for a $1 million record deal, explaining that working there “feels like a community.”
His song “Waffle Options,” released earlier this year, became a viral sensation, though it wasn’t the first time he had made music inspired by the restaurant. Riley had previously dropped tracks such as “Pull Drop Mark” and “Power Hour,” which he hoped to present to Waffle House executives for consideration on the chain’s in-store jukeboxes.
After losing his job, Riley turned to his supporters by launching a GoFundMe campaign.
