Flavor Flav

About Flavor Flav

William Jonathan Drayton Jr. (born on March 16, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York), better known by his stage name, Flavor Flav, is an African-American rapper, actor, television star, and member of the politically and socially conscious rap group, Public Enemy. His visual trademark is an oversized clock hanging from his neck. After falling out of the public eye in former years, he recently reappeared as a star of American reality television. He has starred in several VH1 reality shows, including, The Surreal Life, Strange Love, and Flavor Of Love.

In 1984, the group released their debut record, Public Enemy #1, which brought them to the attention of Def Jam Records executive Rick Rubin, who signed the group to Def Jam in 1985. As a member of Public Enemy, his first record with the group, Yo! Bum Rush the Show, came out in 1987. The group rose to rap prominence with their following release, 1988's It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which went double platinum. By the time the group issued the political single, "Fight the Power", in 1989, the group were mainstream superstars. With 1990's Fear of a Black Planet, Flavor finally got a chance to rap on a PE track, the single, "911's a Joke", became a big hit and made Flav, this however wasn't the first track Flav Rapped on solo it was on It Takes A Nation... on "Cold Lampin Wiv Flavor", along with Chuck D, the showman of the group and its promotional voice, as he often got the crowd hype and with his big glasses, even bigger clock dangling from his neck and wearing big hats, the rapper stood out among his fellow PE group mates. During PE's first years of existence, Flav dealt with tensions with Professor Griff, who never liked Flav's flamboyant stance in what he felt to be a serious politically-challenging group. In 1990, after allegedly making anti-Semitic comments at the Jewish community, Griff left PE. Despite him being the stand out of Public Enemy projects, it took until 2006 for Flav to put out his solo debut album, released during the second season of his hit reality show, Flavor of Love. Throughout the 1990s, Flav was arrested numerous times on assault and drug charges, after a drug overdose, he went to rehab in 1997 and has claimed to be sober since. Flav still raps as a member of Public Enemy though the group often went through hiatus leading Flav to find different ways to reclaim celebrity.

After a hiatus from the music scene, Flavor Flav was invited to participate on the VH1 reality show, The Surreal Life. During this show, he developed a relationship with Brigitte Nielsen. Following the conclusion of the show, Vh1 gave Flav and Brigitte a show entitled Strange Love, which detailed their globetrotting adventure in love. At the end of Strange Love Brigitte decided to return to her fiancee, Mattia Dessi. and is now married. Flavor Flav made a show of his very own, called the Flavor of Love.