| Lil' Flip | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Wesley Eric Weston, Jr. |
| Also known as | Flip, Flip Gates, The Clover G, Da #1 Fly Boy |
| Born | March 3, 1981 |
| Origin | Cloverland, Houston, Texas, United States |
| Genres | Southern Rap |
| Occupations | Rapper, Songwriter, Actor |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Labels | Suckafree, Loud, Columbia, Warner Bros., Clover G, Asylum, Real Talk Ent. |
| Associated acts | Young Buck, Lil Scrappy, DTP, Chingy, Mr. Capone-E, Gorillaz, Scarface, Gudda Gudda, DJ Paul, Chamillionaire |
| Website | flipgatesworld.com |
Wesley Eric Weston, Jr.[1][2] (born March 3, 1981),[1] better known by his stage name Lil' Flip, is an American multi-platinum hiphop artist best known for his singles Sunshine, "Game Over", "The Way We Ball", "I Can Do Dat" and Rollin on 20's from the 2 Fast 2 Furious Soundtrack.
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Flip began rhyming at a very young age, by a teacher and was rewarded with an "A"on a 6th grade English oral exam, Flip chuckled stating "After that I was hooked". Lil' Flip, got his name because of his freestyle abilities to flip the script. As Flip matured, his mic skills got sharper, and his reputation as one of Houston's true young talents blossomed.
Lil' Flip, amid the growing underground rap scene in Houston, Texas, quickly rose to fame after independently releasing the 2000 album titled, The Leprechaun, which broke through to a national audience. Flip, as a teenager won the attention of the highly respected DJ Screw, who added the rapper into his loose-knit rap group called the Screwed Up Click, an affiliation that brought instant respect for Flip throughout Texas as well as the greater South. Later on before his untimely death, DJ Screw pronounced Lil Flip, "The Freestyle King."[3]
In 2002 Columbia Records offered Flip a contract and Suckafree a distribution deal. Flip stated "We felt that they not only respected what we'd already accomplished on our own, but they also saw the big picture of what me as an artist, and Hump and I as Suckafree's CEOs were all about." Lil Flip released his debut studio album Undaground Legend on August 27, 2002. The album was certified Platinum in December 2002. It contained his hit single "The Way We Ball". In 2003 Lil' Flip was also featured in David Banner single "Like A Pimp". Then he also made featured appearance on Yung Wun's charting single "Tear It Up". He also made another appearance on Three 6 Mafia single "Ridin' Spinners" that made the charts. In 2003, he also did a track with Ludacris called "Screwed Up".[3]
In 2004 Flip released his second album U Gotta Feel Me it was his most successful album to date. Lil' Flip's label Columbia restructured Flip ended up at Sony Urban Music which could promote his work better. The first single from the album was "Game Over (Flip)". After that he quickly released his second single, "Sunshine" featuring Lea. This album sold 198,000 domestic copies in its first week and was certified double Platinum by August, 2004. Lil' Flip also made an appearance on the "Naughty Girl (Remix)" with Beyoncé in 2004. He was also featured on Chingy's Powerballin' on the remix of Chingy's successful hit single "Balla Baby". In 2004 he also made a remix to his hit single "Game Over (Flip)" which featured Young Buck and Bun B. He also made a guest appearance on Nelly's successful 2004 album "Sweat". He also collaborated with Jim Jones and The Game on the "Certified Gangstas (Remix)" in 2004. In 2005 Lil' Flip & Z-Ro made a collaboration album entitled Kings of the South. Also in 2005 Lil' Flip was featured in Chamillionaire's first single "Turn It Up". He was also featured in the remix of Bun B's single "Draped Up".[3]
On March 27 Lil' Flip released his third studio album I Need Mine. It consist of 2 discs containg 37 songs. The album also debuted at #15 on the Billboard 200 with 43,400 copies sold in the first week released. and has since sold 120,000 copies. In 2006 Lil' Flip collaborated with Mr. Capone-E and made an album entitled Connected. Also In 2007 Lil' Flip collaborated with Mr. Capone-E again on their sequel album, Still Connected it peaked at #68 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums. Then in 2008 Lil' Flip made another collaboration album with Young Noble entitled All Eyez on Us.[3] Lil Flip recorded a tribute song for the victims of the Virginia Tech Massacre shortly after it occurred.
Ahead of My Time was originally set to be released as early as 2007, but was pushed back many times and was finally released on July 6, 2010. Lil' Flip released two "album-before-the-album's" in 2009 to help promote the release of Ahead of My Time. The two albums were: Respect Me[4] and Underground Legend 2.[5] Despite the album's promotion, the album only sold 205k copies when it was released. [6]
Sources States Lil Flip Has Partnered With EMI Distributed Label: Twenty Two Recordings An Arkansas Label Ran By Arthur AJ Burton III, & James Giddeon Jr Which Currently Operates Under Capitol Music Group To Release His New Album "Ahead Of My Time 1.5" Which Is Due Out Spring 2012 Along With His New Book, A New Movie, & New Line Of Alcohol.
According to AllHipHop,[7] an altercation with rapper T.I. occurred in Lil' Flip's neighborhood, the Cloverland section of Houston. It has been said that T.I. reasons for visiting the neighborhood was to create a DVD to expose Lil' Flip to be a fraud. When T.I. arrived with his entourage, he was met by Flip and his respective entourage, where it is said a fight broke out when one of the members of Flip's entourage began swinging at T.I., which resulted in one of T.I.'s bodyguards to begin shooting. The same day T.I. went on a Houston, Texas radio station and revealed that he had recorded a phone conversation between him and Scarface, and was going to release it with an upcoming mixtape. The taped conversation between T.I. and Scarface was put on a DJ Drama Mixtape and Scarface said he had never seen Lil'Flip in Cloverland. The feud was later squashed by Rap-a-Lot's CEO J. Prince after having the two sit down and resolve it. The feud was documented by the Houston Press.[8]
Filmography
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External links
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