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The highs of Low:
Rapper Flo Rida, 28, used to do odd jobs just to eat and pay for studio time. These days, he doesn't have to worry about his next meal. For the past four months, the rapper has dominated the airwaves with his infectious club jam, Low, which features ubiquitous guest hitmaker T-Pain. Low rocketed up Billboard's Hot 100 last November and is just starting to slow down after 10 weeks at No. 1. The song last week set a record with its 13th straight week atop the Hot RingMasters chart, and in December set a one-week sales record with 470,000 digital downloads.
Why it works:
"I expected this to be big, but I couldn't have predicted this," says Flo Rida (aka Tramar Dillard) of the song, which got a boost as the lead track on the Step Up 2 the Streets soundtrack in February. "There's great chemistry between me and T-Pain, and the song is really melodic."
So, he's from Florida, right?
The stage name refers to Flo Rida's melodic rhyming cadence and is a nod to his home state. (He's from Carol City.)
Going up, again:
While Low seems to have finally hit its peak, Flo Rida hopes that Elevator will take him back to the top. In its second week on the Hot 100, the suggestive club banger, produced by and featuring Timbaland, climbed to No. 28. He has already made an impressive stamp on the charts in advance of his debut album, Mail on Sunday, which arrives Tuesday. "Normally, mail only comes six days a week," he says. "This is going to be like a special delivery for the fans."
Beyond the party vibe:
The album also includes appearances by Rick Ross, will.i.am, Yung Joc, Birdman, Sean Kingston and Trey Songz. Though the first two singles and several other tracks are club-oriented records, Flo Rida says his album is more than just party songs. On All My Life, he talks about losing his sister; Me & U is a Roger Troutman-influenced ballad about staying together. Lil' Wayne joins him for the defiant celebrity anthem American Superstar.
Staying on the grind:
Flo Rida started rhyming with his group, The Groundhoggz, in ninth grade. He was 15 when his brother in-law introduced him to Miami legend Luke Skywalker of 2 Live Crew. He gave college a try (University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Barry University in Miami) but says he quit because it interfered with his music. In 2001, he toured nationally as the sidekick for 2 Live Crew's Fresh Kid Ice, and that exposure brought him to the attention of producer (and former Jodeci member) DeVante Swing.
His wait for a break:
Flo Rida took a Greyhound bus from Miami to Los Angeles to record with Swing ("A great learning experience"), then spent three fruitless years trying to persuade record labels to sign him. He stayed broke and lived on the streets for a while. "There've been a lot of crazy things going on before I had success," he says. "I've had jobs paying $3 an hour - like digging through trash trying to find silverware when I worked at a casino in Las Vegas. I had to sacrifice because I needed studio time. It hasn't been a piece of cake or an easy walk."
