Lil' Flip

Lil' Flip出生于美国德克萨斯州重镇休斯敦市的Wesley Weston，又名Leprechaun。Lil'Flip自幼就是休斯敦当地的非常兴旺的地下说唱歌手之一，从很小的时候开始就已经通过地下说唱来养活自己。2000年，不到18岁的时候，Lil'Flip就以独立方式发行了个人的第一张地下说唱专辑《The Leprechaun》，自吹自己是南方最牛的“自由方式说唱”(freestyle)的国王，并且一直叫嚣要和埃米纳姆(Eminem)争高下。其实这个小子的成功是从当地的地下说唱制作人DJ Screw的慧眼识英开始的，正是他从休斯敦众多的地下说唱歌手中发现了Lil'Flip，并且帮助他录制了一些磁带，正是这些东西让他很快在当地小有名气，并且很快让Lil'Flip找到了自己的经纪人Duane "Humpty Hump'Hobbs，Duane "Humpty Hump'Hobbs把他带到了独立唱片公司Suckafree，并且由Lil'Flip和Duane "Humpty Hump'Hobbs一起在1998年录制了《Hustlas Stackin Endz》，不过最终让他真正红遍德克萨斯的仍然是他的首张个人专辑《The Leprechaun》。2000年，在这张专辑《The Leprechaun》发行之后，随着单曲《I Can Do Dat》在当地地下电台的播出，这张独立发行的专辑很快在当地引起了注意，这个年轻的说唱歌手也随即被主流唱片公司所发现。2002年，不满20岁的Lil'Flip与Sony唱片公司正式签约，从地下说唱走上了主流道路。2002年9月，Lil'Flip在Sony唱片公司的首张正式专辑《Undaground Legend》正式发行，并且在发行首周进入了Billboard 200排行榜前二十名，同时《The Leprechaun》中的一些单曲也在全国范围内有了更广泛的收听群体，Lil'Flip被认为是最有希望的南方说唱歌手之一。随着《Undaground Legend》进入了排行榜，Lil'Flip也正是从一名德克萨斯州的小人物成为了一个颇受欢迎的南方说唱歌手。
by Jason Birchmeier
Amid the flourishing underground rap scene of Houston, Lil' Flip rose to quick and prosperous fame after his independently released 2000 album The Leprechaun broke through to a national audience, prompting the young rapper's signing to Universal Records soon after. Nicknamed the Freestyle King, Flip as a teen initially won the attention of the immortalized DJ Screw, who ushered the rapper into his loose-knit Screwed Up Click. The affiliation brought instant respect for Flip throughout Texas as well as the greater South, and his Leprechaun album capitalized on that, moving an impressive number of units for an independently released album. The album's slowly mounting yet ultimately broad reach and Flip's youthful appeal attracted Universal Records, who signed the barely 20 year old to a major-label contract in 2002 and released Undaground Legend later in the year. Driven by the lead single, "The Way We Ball," as well as a remix of "I Can Do Dat," a hit previously released on The Leprechaun, the album extended Flip's audience nationally and heralded him as one of the South's most promising young rappers of the early 2000s.
In 2002, Flip returned with Undaground Legend, a slick sophomore effort. It would go practically unnoticed. Two years later, Flip returned to the scene with the more expansive double-disc set U Gotta Feel Me. The set spawned a couple sizable hits, namely "Game Over (Flip)" and "Sunshine," and brought Flip the national fame he'd long been courting. With that fame came competition, and it wasn't long before Flip was beefing with T.I. for the right to don the crown of King of the South. Flip kept his profile public not only with such drama but also with a string of mixtapes, most notably the Freestyle Kings series, which reached its sixth volume in 2005. Flip's next album was planned to follow that year, but at the last minute Sony refused to release it and the rapper was without a label for the next three years. I Need Mine finally appeared in 2007 as a double CD and on the Asylum label. A year later his collaboration with Outlawz member Young Noble, All Eyez On Us, was released.