Tramar Dillard, known by his stage name Flo Rida, is an American rapper, songwriter, and singer. Starting with his debut single "Low" over the years, he spawned several hit singles and albums that topped the global hit charts, making him one of the best-selling music artists.
Developing a strong interest in music from an early age, he joined the amateur rap group GroundHoggz. His exposure to music brought him into contact with his brother-in-law, who was a fan of 2 Live Crew, a local rap group. Initially, in an effort to gain a foothold in the music industry, he signed with Poe Boy Entertainment.
His debut single "Low", released by Atlantic Records, proved to be his real breakthrough on several national and international charts, including the US Billboard Hot 100, breaking digital download sales records and earning multiple platinum certifications.
One of the tracks on his first studio album "Mail on Sunday" appeared on the soundtrack of the film Step Up 2: The Streets. Moving forward, he released several hit singles such as "Wild Ones", "Right Round" and "Whistle" and albums such as "Wild Ones" and "ROOTS".
Early career with 2 bands
Tramar Dillard was born on September 16, 1979. Flo Rida, as everyone used to call him, grew up in the Carol City neighborhood of Miami Gardens, Florida. He was a member of the same band called Groundhoggz for eight years. He was the only son in the family, although his parents had 8 children.
A music lover since childhood, he got a feel for real music through his brother-in-law, who was associated with the local rap group "2 Live Crew" as a man of great popularity.
In the ninth grade, he became a member of the amateur rap group GroundHoggz. The other three members of the group were his friends from the apartment complex he lived in. The four members of the group worked together for eight years.
He graduated from high school in 1998 and enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to study international business management, but dropped out after two months. He also worked at Barry University, however, as his heart was for music, he left after a couple of months to develop his passion for music.
At 15, Flo Rida began working with his brother-in-law, who was involved with Luther Campbell, aka Luke Skywalker, of the 2 Live Crew. By 2001, Flo Rida was the promoter of 2 Live Crew's Fresh Kid Ice when he embarked on a solo career.
Return to Florida
Through his relationship in the music industry, Flo Rida met DeVante Swing of Jodeci and traveled west to Los Angeles, California to pursue a career in music. He left college to focus on becoming a real musician.
After four years in California, Flo Rida returned to his home state of Florida and signed with Miami hip hop label Poe Boy Entertainment in early 2006.
"Low" and "Mail on Sunday"
Flo Rida's first official single "Low" was released in October 2007. It features vocals as well as writing and production from T-Pain. The song is featured on the soundtrack of the film Step Up 2: The Streets.
It became a phenomenal hit, reaching the top of the pop singles chart in January 2008. The song ended up selling over seven million digital copies, and for a time was the best-selling digital single of all time. Billboard ranked the song as #23 all time in the summer of 2008.
Mail on Sunday is Flo Rida's first full-length album, released in March 2008. It includes material from Timbaland, will.i.am, JR Rotem and more. The singles "Elevator" and "In A Ayer" also hit the Top 20 in popularity. Mail on Sunday climbed to #4 on the albums chart.
"Right Run"
Flo Rida announced his second solo album with the release of the single "Right Round" in January 2009. It's built around a Dead line tune or Alive's classic pop hit "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
Right Round quickly climbed to the top of the pop singles chart and set a new record for most single-week digital sales, 636 in the last week of February 000.
"Right Round" is also notable for the inclusion of Kesha's uncredited vocalists, just before she became a solo star herself. Bruno Mars co-wrote "Right Round" while he was also on his way to a successful solo career.
"ROOTS"
The abbreviation ROOTS, the title of Flo Rida's second solo album, stands for "The roots of overcoming the struggle". It was released in March 2009 and includes the hit single "Sugar", built around the catchy Eiffel 65 tune "Blue (Da Ba Dee)". Among the co-authors of the album are Akon, Nelly Furtado and Neo.
Flo Rida said that the inspiration for this album was the knowledge that its success involved hard work and was not an overnight affair. The album peaked at number 8 on the chart and eventually sold over 300,00 copies.
"Wild Ones"
After the disappointing commercial performance of his third studio album Only One Flo (Part 1), Flo Rida began working on more expansive pop and dance music sounds for his fourth album, Wild Ones. The lead single "Good Feeling", released in 2011, sampled the Etta James song "Something's Got a Hold On Me" and was inspired by Avicii's massive dance hit "Levels", which also used a sample.
It became a massive pop hit worldwide and reached #3 on the US pop chart. The title track for the album introduced Sia right after she appeared on David Guetta's huge hit "Titanium". "Wild Ones" reached #5 on the Singles Chart.
Flo Rida also showcased his biggest hit for the third single "Whistle" on this album. Despite critical complaints of sexual overtones, the song reached number one on the US pop chart and became another popular hit for Flo Rida worldwide.
Wild Ones, released in the summer of 2012, had another top 10 pop hit with "I Cry". Although perhaps due to four top 10 pop hits, album sales were modest, with Wild Ones peaking at #14.
"My House" and new hits
Instead of a full-length album, Flo Rida released the EP My House in early 2015. It included the single "GDFR" which stands for "Going Down For Real". The song remained closer to traditional hip hop than most of Flo Rida's hits.
The shift was commercially successful and "GDFR" reached #8 on the pop chart, climbing to #2 on the rap chart. The title track My House became the follow-up single. With heavy use of the song for television sports coverage, it climbed the pop charts and reached #4.
After finishing promoting the EP, in December 2015 Flo Rida released the single "Dirty Mind" featuring Sam Martin. On February 26, 2016, Flo Rida released the standalone single "Hello Friday" featuring Jason Derulo which peaked at number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100. On March 24, 2016, he released the promotional single "Who with me?".
On May 20, 2016, Flo Rida released two singles, "Who loved you" featuring Arianna and "Night" featuring Liz Elias and Akon. On July 29, 2016, Flo Rida released "Zillionaire", which was featured in the trailer for Masterminds.
On December 16, 2016, Flo Rida's track "Cake" with the Bay Area rap duo 99 Percent was included on the Atlantic dance compilation "This Is a Challenge" and then sent to top 40 radio on February 28, 2017 as his new single.
In July 2017, he stated in an interview that his fifth album was still in development and that it was 70 percent complete. On November 17, 2017, Flo Rida released another single "Hola" featuring Colombian singer/songwriter Maluma. On March 2, 2018, Flo Rida released a new single called "Dancer" which was soon followed by "Just Dance 2019: Sweet Sensation".
Main works of Flow Ride
"Low" became the longest-running album of 2008 in the US and held the US Billboard Hot 100 spot for ten consecutive weeks. It peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade.
"Low", the most downloaded single in ten years with record digital sales of over six million, was certified 8x platinum by the RIAA, in addition to being certified platinum and gold by many others.
"Right Round" sold 636 digital copies in its first week, breaking Flo Rida's own record with "Low". It became his best-selling single with over twelve million certified downloads, as well as the fastest among millions of downloads in the history of the US digital era.
Flo Rida's personal life
Over the years, Flo Rida has been in several ways. He dated Milisa Ford (2011-2012), Eva Marcil (2010-2011), Brandy Norwood (2009-2010), Brenda Song (2009) and Phoenix White (2007-2008).
He is also a father, but does not live with his son. Flo Rida paid $5 a month for his son, Zohar Paxton, who was born in September 2016.
Alexis (mother) went to court for additional payment and argued that the child support she received was not enough. Moreover, Alexis stated that she could not afford to look after the child and could not go to work leaving the child behind.
It wasn't the first time Flo Rida had had to go through a legal battle over matching paternity and child support. Earlier in April 2014, Natasha Georgette Williams accused Flo Rida of being the father of her son.
Paternity claims turned into legal issues, after which the actual paternity documents suggest that Flo is the child's father. However, today there is no news from his personal life!
