November 4, 2005
After dropping his platinum offering of U Gotta Feel Me (2004), Lil’ Flip is back and ready to shut it down once again with his forthcoming project, I Need Mine.
Flip’s bringing a new and mature facet of himself – recently he chopped it up with Vibe.com about his musical journey from “The Freestyle King” to “Fliperace.”
Vibe.com: You had a long road before you got to where you are. How did you take over Houston? And how long did it take you to take over Houston, before the rest of America was able to see your talent?
Lil’ Flip: Well, anybody who’s just first starting out, they expect for their home team, hometown radio station to play their music off top. But that’s not how it works. You know they gave me a few spins at first, but what I had to do was go out of town and promote - have give-aways and stuff. And once they see how many spins I was getting outside of Houston, they picked up, and was like ‘Okay, he’s really doing it.’
[You know] ‘cause they get a million local artists come up to them saying, ‘I’m going to be big, play my record and this and that.’ So when I proved myself that did my talking.
So how did you get the moniker Fliperace?
‘Cause when it comes to jewelry, can’t no rapper out here fu*k with me. I mean I got fifteen pieces: ten rings, five bracelets, fifteen watches now—I know I said I had ten watches, but I just got five more, ‘cause people give me free shit too.
As far as jewelry goes from the watches, to the bracelets, to the rings and the chains… The diamond chain I have, like everybody has a diamond chain with just one rock in it. The diamond chain that I wear now, it has four rows of diamonds in it, and pretty soon you’ll see other rappers doing it. I call myself “Fliperace,” because I live how I want to live, I do what I want to do, and when I want to buy something – I buy it. Like I might be chilling and have on a million dollars worth of jewelry and you might look down and I’ll still have on some house shoes. Now if that isn’t Fliperace, then I don’t know what you call it.
Tell me about your relationship with DJ Screw. What type of impact did his death have on you?
DJ Screw is the cat that put me on mixtapes. He gave me the opportunity to support my family at the age of 18. And when he passed, it was just crazy. Because it seems like all of the people who were down with me before I became Lil’ Flip, like some of my cousins, died. And he (Screw) died—it’s like all of the people that I wanted to be here to see my success, they ain’t here to see it. So it’s like ‘Damn.’
It’s crazy man, so it just made me appreciate life more.
I’m going through your album titles, and you went from The Leprechaun, to Undaground King, to U Gotta Feel Me and now to I Need Mine, take me through the history behind the significance of the titles?
With The Leprachaun I was in high school, just trying to get that money. You know leprechauns like money and the gold. I was wearing gold teeth with diamonds.
With The Undaground Legend, The Leprechaun, and my mixtapes made me an underground legend. The Undaground Legend went platinum—so I felt like U Gotta Feel Me, because I went platinum without spending my money on a high ass track.
Now, after U Gotta Feel Me did good off of the “Sunshine” and “Game Over” tracks, now I Need Mine. You know, I’m done with the playing. I’m going in the studio and being nonchalant. I’m straight fu*king bringing it to these ni**as.
This album is going to be a classic. There has not been an album that’s been released in the last five years that is a classic like this album. That’s why I call it I Need Mine, ‘cause after this joint—I need mine.
I need my respect, my money, my publishing anything that’s entitled to Lil’ Flip—I need mine. And my next album is called Ahead of My Time—and you know I have them all tattooed on my arm. I have them all on my forearm, like Kanye got the names of all the songs he did for Jay-Z. I got my albums on my arm.
What about Hustlaz Stackin’ Endz?
That was a group that I put together, and the main man in it died. So we threw out an independent album and it did like 35,000. I’m not with that whole situation no more, even though I made up the name and all. I’m not pursuing that situation no more. ‘Cause its like the main dude, he’s not here anymore, so I’m just done with that situation.
Who would you say has influenced your career as a rapper?
Rap-A-Lot Records, as a whole, because they showed me that you can move records without having a lot of CDs played - that you can feed your family without having a lot of CDs played. They gave me hope.
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