Upon the show's debut in early 2009, the reaction was immediate. Suddenly he was getting tens of thousands of clicks on his MySpace profile. His name was spreading. Hipped to him by producer Alchemist, former MTV VJ and rapper Simon Rex called him. Before long, Riff Raff was visiting L.A. and sleeping on Rex's couch. The pair later formed a rap group called Three Loco with comedian Andy Milonakis.

In 2011, Riff Raff arrived in L.A. to stay. He won over critics with collaborations with hot artists such as Action Bronson, Chief Keef, Kitty Pryde and Lil B, as well as solo tracks.

Last year he surprised everyone by signing a deal with electro imprint Mad Decent. Its chief, super-producer Diplo, compared Riff Raff to early Apple stock — strong potential upside.
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Riff Raff's brother, Viktor, is a vision of what Horst Simco might have become: He has a narrow, handsome face and a tall, athletic build, but his clean-cut look lacks easily visible tattoos. Horst also might have followed the path to graduate school, like his older sister, Amber, who has a pair of master's degrees.

Improbably, he has instead achieved celebrity, and perhaps riches as well. He speaks gleefully of the Las Vegas home he's outfitting with a Jacuzzi in the living room, and lists off the cars he says he owns, including a Porsche Panamera.

He's become so well-known that the simulacrum is now a simulacrum. When acclaimed filmmaker Harmony Korine was planning his dystopian college-bacchanal film Spring Breakers, he attempted unsuccessfully to contact Riff Raff to participate. In the end, James Franco played a St. Petersburg drug dealer-cum-rapper named Alien, whose appearance and speaking style were similar to Riff Raff's. (Riff Raff influenced the character, say Korine and Franco, but so did others including a little-known Florida emcee named Dangeruss.)

In July, Riff Raff announced that he was suing the filmmakers for using his likeness. Countless outlets reported on his attempts to win $10 million, but it appears to be little more than a publicity stunt. A search of court records turned up no lawsuit.

His tawdrier exploits have only added to the Riff Raff myth. Two women publicly accused him of masturbating in front of them after he invited them into his home. (Riff Raff did not respond to a request for comment on that allegation.)

Other women who claim to have hooked up with him offer lurid accounts, but at least they don't suggest he's a phony. On a site called phatfriend.com, one woman wrote that, throughout their hookup, he didn't break character: "He is him. A caricature of himself maybe. He believes it, and I guess that's what makes the myth the man."
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Riff Raff had high hopes when he showed up at behemoth New York radio station Hot 97 in May for an interview. But it was derailed by program director Ebro Darden, who harshly accused Riff Raff of perpetuating "a stereotype of a certain type of black person" and wondered if his look was a mere costume.

To Darden, it comes down to authenticity: If Riff Raff came from a hardscrabble, urban environment, he could understand the rationale for dressing as he did. Not otherwise.

Now, after being filled in on the details of Riff Raff's upbringing by a reporter, Darden is unconvinced. "I felt like it was an act, and based on the information you're giving me, it is an act," he says. "My main issue is the appropriation of what people think is black culture to gain credibility."

Following Miley Cyrus's much-derided performance at last month's MTV Video Music Awards, the pop starlet was similarly accused of crude racial appropriation. But when does a look stop being a costume and start being who you really are?

After all, maybe it was initially dress-up, but now the costume is more real than the boy who first donned it. Horst Simco was a quiet, pensive kid who turned from Horst (the one who played by the rules) into Riff Raff (the disreputable one) because hip-hop was a world where confident, sharp-dressed men succeeded. So, like countless rappers and movie stars before him, he faked it until he made it, and suddenly there was no Horst Simco anymore. There was only Riff Raff.

But Riff Raff hasn't abandoned Horst entirely. He might betray where he came from, but not the performer who inspired him.

While white rappers like Eminem and 3rd Bass both have gone out of their way to diss Vanilla Ice, Riff Raff has repeatedly professed his admiration for his childhood idol, including during the Hot 97 interview.