Drayton then used “Flavor Flav” as his stage name and hasn’t stopped using it since. The two worked together on Chuck D’s hip-hop college radio show and started rapping together. While he was attending university, he met Carlton Ridenhour (who eventually became known as Chuck D.). He attended a culinary school in 1978 and then proceeded to attend Adelphi University in Rhode Island. When he was in 11th grade, he dropped out of school and was in and out of jail because of robbery and burglary.įlavor Flav tried to steer his life back to the right track. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for him.
With a background like that, one could just simply think that Flavor Flav had a good future ahead of him. At the young age of 5, he taught himself how to play the piano and was also part of a church choir where he soon became proficient in playing the piano, guitar, and drums. William Jonathan Drayton Jr., or more famously known today as Flavor Flav, was born on Main Roosevelt, New York.