Legendary hype man Flavor Flav now part-time Detroit resident

If the recent whereabouts of legendary hype man Flavor Flav are any indication, Detroit is the place to be.

The Public Enemy founding member-turned-reality star has been spotted at major events in the city in recent weeks, trading friendship bracelets with Taylor Swift fans at her Friday show at Ford Field and posing with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and IndyCar owner Roger Penske at the Detroit Grand Prix the previous weekend.

Flav, who about 15 years ago was the subject of the Bachelor-style show Flavor of Love, confirmed in an interview with the Free Press Saturday that he lives in Detroit part-time, primarily for his girlfriend, who’s from the city. He also has relatives in the area.

“I love Detroit,” he said, recalling it as the first place he ever visited by plane, to open for the Beastie Boys at the Fox Theatre in 1986. “Ever since then, I’ve loved Detroit.

“And Detroit loves Flav,” he added. “When I come to Detroit, Detroit lets me take over.”

Flav, whose real name is William Drayton Jr., is working on music with Barry Sanders’ son, producer Nigel “Sanjai” Sanders, and Detroit rapper Trick Trick, his manager said. Previously he was a restaurateur, with an eponymous chicken and ribs eatery in Sterling Heights.

Flav enjoys “all types” of live music and appreciates that there’s “always something going on” in Detroit, his manager, Rhiannon Ellis, said. He lives between Detroit and Las Vegas.

Here’s an inexhaustive list of his recent Detroit jaunts and boosterism:

Flav stood floor level at the Swift show Friday “making friends,” he wrote on Instagram, amassing a stack of bracelets in an Eras Tour-trend inspired by Swift’s song lyric, “so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.” His manager said he delighted the popstar by sharing that he has a son named Karma, like the title of her latest single.

More: Taylor Swift triumphant in Detroit visit for 120,000 total fans: Here’s Saturday set list

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During early June’s IndyCar Series race, he cheered on driver Will Power, who finished second, and unexpectedly hopped on stage with Outkast member Big Boi. He also paused to film a short rap in front of the Renaissance Center: “Flavor Flav the real McCoy/ I make everybody jump for joy/ In the place to be/ Right here in the D.” This, however, gave away that he’s a more recent transplant, as the accompanying caption mistakenly called the skyscraper the “Chevy” Renaissance Center.

On Memorial Day, during the Movement Electronic Music Festival he headlined a decade ago with Public Enemy, he posted a video swirling two sparklers in a Detroit Rock City shirt. In the comments, an associate asks “Raver flav?” with a crying laughing emoji. Alas, however, Flav was not in town for Movement; he said Saturday that it was a latergram from a Fourth of July outing with Trick Trick.

More: Driver Will Power had a famous fan in Detroit Grand Prix stands: Flavor Flav

In early May, Flav was on Comerica Park’s jumbotron lip syncing to Public Enemy in a Detroit Tigers jacket. “An impromptu performance” by “your boy,” he wrote on Instagram.

Last year, Flav attended a Pistons game with former Fab Five member Jalen Rose, sat at the keys of the Motown Museum’s world-famous piano and jumped off the building’s iconic steps, cheered on the University of Michigan football team from the sidelines, where he high fived a player after a touchdown, and plugged a local singer named Jordan whom he’d met at a bowling alley, calling him “Detroit’s hidden talent.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Legendary hype man Flavor Flav now part-time Detroit resident