By: Todd Davis

Born into the 187th Street projects in the Carol City section of Miami Gardens, Florida, Tramar "Flo Rida" Dillard actually got his musical start rapping alongside the infamous 2 Live Crew when he was still in his teenage years. Through that association, a chance encounter with Devante' Swing, a former member of ‘90's balladeers Jodeci, came about. Unfortunately, that situation didn't pan out either. In 2007, shortly after dropping out of college to pursue Hip-Hop, Flo Rida signed with Poe Boy Entertainment. His chart-topping debut, Mail On Sunday, which was fueled by the set's T-Pain featured lead single, "Low," dropped the following year, and Flo Rida had officially arrived.

Urban Network recently spoke to the 29 year-old emcee on the eve of the release of his sophomore set, R.O.O.T.S. (Route Of Overcoming The Struggle)…

Explain the concept behind the title of your brand new second CD?
I mean, most def, you know, just going back early on to growing up in a house of a single parent home, seven sisters, the youngest, the only boy. I mean, in the projects there's a lot of drug dealing, killing, but my mama always instilled in me you can be in a place where you don't have to be of it. Dream big, always have faith, put God first. And, I mean, thanks to that, you know, I'm successful. I mean, at the same time, I had a chance to go to Africa recently and that definitely inspired it for the fact that (I saw) different struggles. By me putting all that intertwined, I came up with this album R.O.O.T.S. I mean, definitely I wanted the fans versus the first album, Mail On Sunday, to realize that, you know, I have some substance. I am the life of the party, but I have like four, five records on here that definitely represent, "If you believe it, you can achieve it!" ‘Cause I feel like if I've been blessed, I would love to bless others with information that can definitely help youths stay on the right path and have…I mean, I got like thirteen records on this joint. Got Wyclef on the album, got my boy, Ne-Yo, got Akon…

So for the most part you feel that it's your stepping it up lyrically that is the major difference between this record and your first?
Oh, yeah, most definitely the lyrical content. You know the fact that, like I said, it's more substance. I go deep into different things, the way I grew up, what I do to continue to have success, how I got started, the different people who helped catapult my situation. Definitely my mom, you know, always helping me keep the faith and everything. I got a record called "Never," just saying, "Never give up, never hold your head down, you can't trust everybody and things like that." So, I mean, it's some real deep content on this album as well.

Coming off of such a big debut, were you worried that this project wouldn't live up to the hype of Mail On Sunday?
I mean, not really truthful and honestly because, you know, like you watch Mike Tyson early on you see like his training coach. With somebody like my manager and my team is more family oriented. They keep me working hard, (and) they keep me in the studio, so you always feel like you can't be stopped. So, I mean, that's how it is with me with working hard. It paid off just out of such a huge sophomore single.

Speaking of that single, whose idea was it to incorporate that Dead or Alive sample in "Right Round?"
Early on growing up, you know, (I was) around seven sisters so I heard all type of music. So, my A&R, Mike Caren, we're always searching and trying to do different things and he brought it to my attention. Then, I got in the studio with Dr. Luke and we just went in and made history.

You mentioned your lyrical growth, so what inspires you when you sit down to write your rhymes?
From the fact that just traveling internationally now, versus nationally, I get a chance to see different aspects of life around the world. I sometimes I reminisce and think back on when I didn't have a record deal just to really captivate emotions and everything.

Recently you made headlines when you were wrongfully accused of participating in the torture of an animal — Care to explain what happened?
Oh, it's a situation where, you know, if you're number one people like to attach negativity to you versus something positive. Now right before that, I went to a children's hospital-that didn't get publicized around the world. But, something that really I had nothing to do with at all got publicized. The fact that I was in Kentucky, I decided I wanted to go by the university and sign some autographs. But, prior to going there…I approached this intersection and on the sidewalk, my manager sees these guys torture some animal. So, my camera guy initially gets his camera and just starts recording. It could've been someone in a car accident or someone getting beat down by police or something, but in this situation it was an animal. So, being that my big bus was right there, they took the initiative to say Flo Rida's entourage had something to do with some animal cruelty. But mind you, we city guys we scared to take a fish off the hook. Messing with any animal, I got more things to do than that. And eventually, we just went on, we signed autographs at the school, went did radio. Riding back towards another state, we actually got stopped by the police and the police just stopped us ‘cause they want an autograph. Twenty minutes later, we get phone calls, "Oh, there's a warrant out for our bus about some animal cruelty." We like, "Oh, my God is not funny for the fact that it happened to an animal, but for the fact that we know we had nothing to do with that. We got a call the next day, they were just like they sent out their apologies because they had pictures of the guy and, you know, that was it.

Thanks for clearing the air on those allegations. Now Chris Brown was originally listed as a featured guest on the album, but I notice that isn't the case now — Did his removal have anything to do with this situation between him and Rihanna?
Oh, nah, it didn't have anything to do with the allegations with Chris Brown and Rihanna. Like thirty days prior to that, you know, I had a deadline for my album. So, we were trying to work out the business difference. I have other records that I wanted to make the album as well. That record ["Sweat"] is definitely a hot record, so we look forward to, you know, doing something with that. Maybe even put it on a movie soundtrack or something later — Maybe the re-release of my album or something.

What are some of your other future goals and aspirations?
I am definitely taking advantage of all avenues that come along with having great music, so I got my clothing line Parlay Adore, and the meaning behind it is Increasing For Something Much Greater, which is kickin' off the end of this year. I have different people hitting me up about movies, so I look forward to being on the big screen. Aside (from) that, I am taking advantage of letting my audience, my fans, stream online at www.mycontent.com. They get to watch my album release party; recently I did it, and as far as when I'm going on tour real soon, they'll get a chance to stream online and watch that. They'll get a chance to catch some of the footage that we've been doing. And, at the same time, all my fans can hit me up on officialflo.com. That'll take you to my Facebook, Myspace and, I have my cell phone number which I always give out to the fans. All my fans, you can hit me up at 305-528-2786. Let me know what you think about the album and so forth.