No matter what game, no matter the stakes, the Ace is the card everybody wants to have. Above the limits of titles and assigned values the Ace is unpredictable yet always held in high regard. Even the King has to watch his back. It's simply the best.
Hailing from Port St. Lucy Florida, twenty-year-old Ace Hood is the first signee to DJ Khaled's We the Best label. His hot new single "Cash Flow," featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, is setting the stage for his debut CD, Gutta, distributed by Def Jam Records. After hustling his talent on the streets of Florida, this charismatic artist is finally showing the world that he is the top card in the deck.
"I got the name Ace Hood, it was a childhood thing. Ace represents one. I feel I'm an army in myself. I carry my own weight," he explains. "And since I'm from the street why not attach hood to it?"
Ace Hood, born Antoine McColister, is an aberration. With artists getting attention on the strength of Myspace clicks and Youtube downloads Hood got into the industry through a tried and true asphalt grind. At the age of 17 he was recording for local label Dollaz & Dealz and scored a hit with the catchy "M.O.E." (i.e., "Money Over Everything"). After honing his showmanship on local crowds he set his sites on performing for DJ Khaled at his birthday bash.
"We was outside the radio station not even trying to get a deal, just hoping to perform at his Birthday Bash," he recalls. "We just figured we'd try and perform. He had a contest going on where you had to give a certain amount of reasons why you should perform at the Birthday bash. So I was going to rap for him on camera and show him why I was worthy. He had to go to a meeting, came in, looked at me and said I love his image. We handed him a CD and once we did that he listened to it and called my manager that night. He said I love his swag, I hear starvation in his music but he wanted me on a bigger record."
So Khaled pulled some strings to beef up a track called "Cash Flow" that Ace Hood had gotten from The Runners.
"Once I played it for Rick Ross he loved it and he put his whole swag to it. The song was pretty much done but we felt to make it more of a hit record, get somebody like T-Pain who's running the game right now, on the hook to make it go that much further."
For the Gutta debut Ace has secured tracks from Cool N Dre, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, The Runners, and Danja just to name a few . The title cut and second single feature Miami hip-hop royalty, Trick Daddy. From the beats to the rhymes expect nothing but the best.
"This album is definitely gonna be a classic,” Ace Hood says confidently. "People will expect a lot out of me because I'm on Khaled's label but I'm living up to what I'm supposed to be." |
