There’s this weird persistent theory that Americans don’t really get irony – we’re not sure about this, there are a lot of Americans we know who seem fairly comfortable with the concept.

But there’s some evidence. When The Office transferred to the USA, it was broadcast on a low-key cable channel and received only limited commercial success – although a successful American adaptation followed shortly after. Alanis Morissette famously mangled the meaning of 'ironic' for her hit 1995 song, confusing an entire generation of teenage girls (OK OK, so she's actually Canadian). And waves of British comedians have tried and failed to crack the lucrative US market, returning limply home to pronounce that irony doesn’t work on American shores. Maybe they just weren’t that funny.

So when Young C.E.O broke into public consciousness with his rehash of O.T Genasis track CoCo, I was the first to think – great! Of course Americans get irony. After all, there’s no way that Young C.E.O could actually be serious, right? A rich white kid rapping about his $200 million trust fund in a yellow bow tie and a natty Mr Bean-style comb-over?

I filed him away neatly in my mind as “an ironic joke” and moved on. Then I was asked to find out if this was “real”, and I was like, sure, why not? I enjoy a faux-rapper making a social commentary on white privilege as much as the next person.

But when Young C.E.O appears over Skype for our interview, clad in a purple button-down shirt with an undone bow tie around his neck…I start to feel not so sure that the whole thing is a joke. Sure, it’s possible he’s just staying in character, like Marlon Brando in between takes on The Godfather set.

It’s when Young C.E.O breathes a cloud of e-cigarette vapour directly into the camera lens and barks ‘next question’ that my douchebag radar starts going off. Ping. Ping. Ping. The thing is, my douchebag radar isn’t usually wrong. I have a solid douchebag radar. One of the finest around, in fact.

As the interview progresses, a sinking feeling sets in, like the sort you get when your period is late or you finally check your bank balance after a particularly bad bender. Nonetheless, I switch my douchebag radar to airplane mode and blunder on in the wild hope that no one can really be that awful.

Because sometimes it’s better to just let people speak for themselves, I’m going to let Dazed readers be the judge of whether Young C.E.O is joking or not. Is he for real? Is anything for real? What does real even mean?

Here’s the transcript of our interview, edited for length and clarity.

Hi, thanks for talking to me. So I guess my first question is – is this for real?

Young C.E.O: So it came out like it was a joke, but I’ve been rapping since I was young. This is for real.

Okay, so who are your rap inspirations?

Young C.E.O: Right now, it’s Drake. Drake tells stories, he doesn’t front like he’s from the fricking struggle in the hood. He just tells a story the way it is. The way he switches up – I guess I’m trying to be the white Drake.

Is it important to you to be like Drake because you’re also not fronting about being from the hood?

Young C.E.O: You know, everyone has a story. My story involves not as much struggle. But not fronting…Drake doesn’t front like he packs guns or sells drugs. That’s not what Drake does. I look up to him because he doesn’t fucking lie, basically.

So is it true you actually have a $200million trust fund?

Young C.E.O: You want to get into the money?

Yeah.

Young C.E.O: [He inhales on his e-cig]. That is all true yes. And that’s the last question I’m going to answer about that.

The money is quite integral to your image, so why don’t you want to answer questions about it?

Young C.E.O: I come from a place where my grandfather and my parents are very humble. So essentially I’m an anomaly where I’m from. And I grew up with kids that all had a shit ton of money and they started to get these egos that sort of took over themselves. So I don’t fucking like to talk about the money, except for in my raps, because I know my father and grandfather would be a little bit like… look, old money – you don’t flex it like that. But I do. And I work for my Dad’s companies. I’m a businessman, but I also rap. I’m a businessman and I happen to have written raps ever since I was fourteen, on the side of writing for my father. 

Are you actually a CEO? 

Young C.E.O: I’ve been groomed to take over all these companies since I was young. My Dad and I have the same name; I’m third in line, yeah I’m a proper CEO. I have President on my business card, but I guess President and CEO are the same thing.

Cool. Why did it say on your video that it’s a secret Illuminati video?

Young C.E.O: Um…I personally can’t answer that, and I don’t like to talk about that word. But the thing is, the video got leaked, it wasn’t supposed to come out for another month or two. Then this radio station in Connecticut was like, ‘Holy Fuck, the Wolf of Wall Street can rap’. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got this video and everything, and someone in the camp leaked out. Anyway I don’t like to talk about Illuminati shit like that. I wasn’t the one who put that title on it.

So you’re not a member of the Illuminati?

Young C.E.O: That’s a loaded question. I don’t know why you had to go there? Just…next question. Next question. I’m not going to answer that. 

All right. So can you tell me a bit about your squad?

Young C.E.O: So my squad right now consists of me, Young CFO, who’s Aby Rosen, who owns the W in Miami and South Beach and Tel Aviv and a bunch of other properties. And then there’s Zach Marley, he’s from Texas, his parents are in oil and gas. We’re just a bunch of rich motherfuckers.

There aren’t any girls in your crew – is this a conscious thing?

Young C.E.O: Er no, not really, I do have one trust fund girl rapper that I’m going to put out eventually. But I can’t give you her name.

Do you have to be a trust-funder to join your crew? If I was a good rapper but I didn’t have any money, could I join?

Young C.E.O: What, like in the background?

No, to rap with your crew.

Young C.E.O: No…you need to be extremely rich.

So you’re not taking rappers on merit?

Young C.E.O: I’m not what?

You’re not taking people on merit. They’ve got to be really rich?

Young C.E.O: What does go on merit mean? What does that mean?

Not going on merit? It means you wouldn’t take someone who was a really good rapper, if they weren’t rich.

Young C.E.O: Um, no. I have enough good rappers and they’re all rich, so…

What would you say to all the people who criticise what you’re doing? Have you engaged much with the online criticism of you?

Young C.E.O: Like, what the critics and shit?

Yeah.

Young C.E.O: So I had this idea when I was fourteen, and I knew that America was not ready for it. I’m getting the same reaction that like, Donald Trump is getting. So I knew this was going to happen and I was ready for it. But what I didn’t imagine was a race war kind of starting. There’s like 4000 comments under my video and it’s not even about my video any more. People have gotten into stuff like, if whites should be allowed in hip-hop.

I’m trying to open the door for some of the richest kids in the world. Rap sucks nowadays. Rap has come to this place where everyone is like, flexing. Like Young Thug, whoever it is, they’re flexing whatever they have. And it’s like, okay, that’s cool, that’s awesome, you’re getting somewhere in the media. People watch the Kardashians and shit. And I’m like, my life is dope, I’m just going to rap about my life. So I knew the criticism was going to fucking happen, because this is such a new idea. If this built up, you’d have people who were just like so wealthy rapping. Because that’s all that rap has become.

Can you tell me about your life? What do you do when you’re not rapping, and you’re not working?

Young C.E.O: Um…I do a lot of drugs.

Okay. What sort of drugs? 

Young C.E.O: Obviously I do a lot of pills and coke, and I’m very open about it. I don’t see an issue with it. I don’t know what else I do. I race cars, I buy cars. 

What cars do you have?

Young C.E.O: So right now I have a AMG G55, a 2009 G-Wagon, a S63 AMG, I really like Mercedes. I got a brand-new Range supercharged for Christmas. I have a Ferrari 458, which you saw in the music video. I have a Bentley GT, which is like a 09, which I am actually leasing off a friend but it doesn’t matter – that one was in the video too. The other Bentley is my friend’s. By the way, the cars in the video – two of them were mine, and one of them was my friend’s. People who rent cars for video are fucking wack. I also just bought my sister a Range Rover Evoque.

You mentioned Donald Trump earlier – do you compare yourself to him?

Young C.E.O: I love Trump; I love what he’s doing. But I don’t want to be hated. I mean I’m extremely happy. I love money and everything. But people need to understand; this world needs to understand this. Everyone’s trying to get this level of money and stuff, but the money’s not what makes me happy. All the people I surround myself with, and the energy I give off – that’s what makes me happy. I know all these people who have a ton of money and they’re not happy at all. I don’t want to be a Donald Trump figure like that. I want people to know I have a lot of money and flex it but I also want to motivate people to get degrees and do all this stuff, because once you’re happy with yourself and you’ve proved to yourself that you can do something, then the money’s either going to come, or the money’s going to not matter any more.

So you want to inspire other people to be more like you?

Young C.E.O: Yeah. Just be happy with yourself, regardless of where you’re at in life. Just accept it and be happy.

Do you think you’d still be rapping if you didn’t have all the money?

Young C.E.O: Yeah, I’ve always had this beat inside me. You could put on any beat and I could just freestyle whatever it is. I’ve always loved rapping. If I didn’t have the money…I love music.

Could you freestyle for me now?

Young C.E.O: What you got like a beat or something?

No…just freestyle.

Young C.E.O: Um….yeah I don’t care. I’ll talk at you. [He raps for about a minute, but it doesn’t sound like a freestyle – it sounds like material he already wrote. When he finishes he tosses his comb-over back into place]. Sorry, I just like flipped out a little bit there.

Yeah…I mean that was…impressive. So what’s next for you then?

Young C.E.O: Um…the mixtape is titled The 1 Percent, that’s dropping; we’ve got DJ Whoo Kid doing that. There's a bunch more videos coming. The next video that’s coming, you should like it. I’m just trying to fucking rile up all of hip-hop right now. So the next moves will be to rile up hip-hop and get people all in a frenzy.

Do you think you can be bigger than Drake?

Young C.E.O: I want to be, I want to be on the same level as Drake, but I’d never say I want to be bigger than Drake because I respect him so much.

Would you do like a collaboration with Drake if he came knocking?

Young C.E.O: Oh yeah. I’d definitely collaborate with Drake.