You can say many things about Flavor Flav, but you can’t say he doesn’t keep it real.
Flav’s new book, entitled “Flavor Flav: The Icon, the Memoir,” is an eye-opening account of his life in the spotlight from his time in Public Enemy to his time on various reality TV shows. And if you think Flav is holding back in any area or let some ghostwriter do the talking for him, think again. His book is chock-full of unsparing details of his drug abuse, sexual exploits, tensions with Public Enemy member Professor Griff and other stories in his eventful life.
Flav was born William Drayton 52 years ago in Long Island, N.Y., which turned out to be a boon for his future career. It was at Long Island’s Adelphi University that he met Carlton Ridenhour, who would become Public Enemy frontman Chuck D. They and the rest of Public Enemy would enjoy fame and fortune as one of hip-hop’s pioneering groups, but apparently during all of that time, Flav was an acknowledged drug abuser, something he’s candid about in his book.
“I [was] a drug addict for 18 years; only six years clean,” he told XXLmag.com. “The worst mistake I ever made was experimenting with drugs. I was always more of a follower instead of a leader. Being around the ‘hood, you’re following, you always wanna have a big name for yourself, and you don’t wanna be no punk. Whatever my friends were doing, I chose to do. It was the worst experiment that I could do in my life, but would I change it to this day? No. The reason why is because I got to learn about addiction. I got to live through all of that, so that way I could be able to teach about it and hopefully, people learn how I made my mistakes and they [don’t] make the same mistakes that I made.”
The father of eight children and grandfather of three, Flav may want to ensure his youngest children don’t read his memoir until they’re older. The book is chock full of graphic references to his sex life and drug abuse. He holds little back, and in his own words and voice, he narrates the journey of his life through his time with P.E., several downfalls due to drugs and his return to fame via reality television.
While a recent venture into chicken restaurants is temporarily on hold, Flav does say he has a new reality TV show in the works. He says he is proud of his work on TV, despite the common view that the success of shows like “Flavor of Love” spawned the many similarly low-brow shows on TV today.
Flav told theboombox.com that he enjoyed doing the memoir and telling his story. Despite several run-ins with Griff and Chuck D’s undoubtedly unflattering opinion of his TV shows, Public Enemy still does shows and performs together. As for his outrageous persona, Flav says that throughout his career, he was just being who he was.
“I was just thinking of being myself,” he told theboombox.com, “and, you know, when you be yourself, that’s unique. By you being yourself – not caring what everybody else says about you, not caring what everybody else has to think about you – just being yourself makes you unique.” Yeah, booyyeeeee
