CityLife

Flo to ride into town for Apollo date

MIAMI SOUND MACHINE: Flo Rida

PERHAPS the hottest new rapper on the block right now, it makes perfect sense then that Flo Rida will drop by the UK for a handful of dates at the height of summer.

Fresh from topping charts worldwide with the number one smash ‘Right Round’, Flo Rida will play the Manchester Apollo on July 14 as part of a four-date UK tour.

Born Tramar Dillard, the Florida golden boy (hence the name), hasn’t looked back since releasing debut LP, Mail On Sunday, last year – bagging two Grammy nominations and shifting two million downloads of the Right Round single.

Not that the road to super-stardom has been an easy one for Flo. He got his first break at 18 when touring with as the hype man for Fresh Kid Ice of 2 Live Crew, and his MC skills caught the attention of DeVante Swing - formerly of the famed R&B group Jodeci. Swing flew the young rapper out to LA, where Flo ended up staying for three years, struggling to make his mark.

“I was literally on the streets, at times promoting myself by myself,” he says. In early 2006, hesitant to leave L.A until he had successfully landed a record deal, he returned to Miami.

Continuing his grind, working hard to self promote and with the help of CEO of Poe Entertainment’s E-Class, he signed first to Poe Entertainment and then to Atlantic Records. “That was the greatest moment of my life,” Flo Rida recalls.

“I had been working so hard for so long. I had jobs in construction, I worked in warehouses, you name it.  But those were all the sacrifices I made by putting my money towards my music, and it finally paid off”.

Flo Rida plays the Apollo on Tuesday, July 14. £22.50. Call 0871 2200 260.