William Jonathan Drayton, Jr. was born March 16, 1959), better known by his stage name Flavor Flav. Flavor Flav is an American rapper, television star, and member of the rap group Public Enemy. Flavor Flav is also known for popularizing the role of the hype man and for yelling "Yeah boy!" and "Flavor Flav!" during performances.
After falling out of the public eye for a number of years, he has recently reappeared as the star of several VH1 reality series, including The Surreal Life, Strange Love, and Flavor of Love.
Flavor Flav grew up in Freeport, Long Island. His father owned a greasy spoon called the Soul Diner. Flavor Flav began playing the piano at age five; he claims to be self-taught. A musical prodigy, he sang in the youth choir at his church and mastered the piano, drums, and guitar at an early age. He eventually became proficient in 15 instruments. His childhood included legal trouble: He set a house on fire as a small child while playing with a lighter and, by the time he dropped out of school in the 11th grade, he had been in and out of jail for robbery and burglary.
Flavor Flav attended Adelphi University in Long Island where he met Carlton Ridenhour, who would become known as Chuck D. Flavor Flav took his stage name after his graffiti tag. They first collaborated on Chuck D's hip-hop college radio show, then began rapping together. The two worked for Chuck D's father's delivery service.
By the 1990s, Flavor Flav had become a drug addict. In 1991, he pled guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend Karen Ross and he served 30 days in jail, lost custody of his children, and sank deeper into addiction. Two years later, he was charged with attempted murder and imprisoned for 90 days for shooting at his neighbor in 1993. He was later charged with domestic violence, cocaine and marijuana charges; his family performed an intervention and he checked into the Betty Ford Center for crack addiction.
After leaving the clinic, Flavor Flav began dating Angie Parker, with whom he has three more children. However, because of his previous erratic behavior, Public Enemy had temporarily stopped performing and, without anything else to do, he found himself back in addiction. After his father died of diabetes in 1997 he decided to re-enter rehabilitation, this time at the Long Island Center for Recovery. At one point, he broke both arms in a motorcycle crash. After leaving the clinic, he began dating Beverly Johnson, and by 2000, he lived in a small apartment in the Bronx with her and her two kids from a previous marriage while making extra cash scalping baseball tickets. In 2002, he spent nine weeks in Rikers Island jail for driving with a suspended license, numerous parking tickets and showing up late for his probation officer.
Following his release from jail, he broke up with Johnson and moved in with his mom on Long Island. Chuck D became concerned about his friend's well-being and, towards the end of 2003, suggested Flav move to Los Angeles. He moved into his friend Princess' apartment and within months met Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin, the creators and executive producers of The Surreal Life, who had tracked him down as soon as they heard he had moved to Los Angeles. Seeing that he had remained clean from his previous addictions, they wanted to cast him. Initially Flav refused, feeling the show was for celebrities past their fame. He was eventually convinced to join by previous participant MC Hammer.
source:wikipedia
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