“font-family: Verdana;”>“He used to tell me that he used to rap to my mother’s stomach, so I guess I was born a hip-hop baby.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At 12 years old, Darrail Fleming already has a clever spin on the rap duo that includes his father Orlando “B-Tight” Fleming.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>B-Tight has been grinding as an artist in the area since 1995 – three years longer than his son has been alive – but he knew early on that his son had something. The child started singing hooks for B-Tight at the tender age of four.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I didn’t force it on him,” B-Tight said. “I guess after him hanging around he was like, ‘I want to do this.’ He was about 8 and was like, ‘Daddy, I want to do this.’”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He’s been shadowing his father ever since. But last year when he sang the hook on “Club Bug” for B-Tight, the label’s leading man knew that they had something worth exploring.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Once I heard him rap, I was like, ‘Let’s do a father and son thing,” Flatline Records CEO Mr. Whit said. “For one, it’s unheard of, and for two they are both so talented.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Whit was so impressed with them and what they can offer the industry that he’s banking on the hip-hop scene taking notice in a major way.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’ve had other artists on my Flatline label, but for me I think the buck stops here with D-Rail and B-Tight,” Whit said. “Through them I have the artists I’ve been looking for all this time.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>B-Tight and D-Rail are ready to hit hip-hop swinging by way of their upcoming album Father vs. Son. They have already released an EP that gives a sample of what Mr. Whit says is the first father and son flow in hip-hop history.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“To have a real father and son, it’s unheard of – even Lil’ Romeo and Master P, they didn’t do it as far as actually doing a collaboration,” Whit said. “Their chemistry together on a song is unreal. That teamwork, it shows and it comes out in the song.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>They rap about everything – girls, the grind, the good old days and a fresh shoe game.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“You can express a whole lot of things through hip-hop,” D-Rail said. “And when I go into the studio, I feel like a whole lot of weight has been lifted off of me.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He may have had a rough day at school, and we go and do a show or go into the studio and it’s like therapy,” B-Tight said about his son, who is currently in the seventh grade at Fanning Middle School.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>For them, working together is about giving the world a fresh perspective of the new family dynamic that has come in the three generations of hip-hop, but it’s more than just the music.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“To see us doing this and for me growing up without a father, I’m trying to break that chain,” B-Tight said. “To see him up there on stage – he thinks that I don’t watch, but I’m watching – and see him as he does his thing is a great feeling. And he’s having fun doing it. He could be out doing a lot of things, because I see a lot of these young guys out here lost – younger than him.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>D-Rail feels blessed to be in the mix of his father’s grind as a rapper and in his life as a son.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“He’s my father and he does a whole lot for me,” D-Rail said. “He does his part and I have to do mine. He puts the daddy hat on, but when it comes to the rap part he has to put the manager hat on – he wears like 80 different hats. He inspires me just have to show that I’m a good artist and I can do this.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>B-Tight is expecting big things.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“My hope is that we get a major label deal and that would be a raindrop to a river of what we are trying to do,” B-Tight said. “Clothes, acting working with other artists, just create opportunities for other artists – whenever God decides to bless us to bless others.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>B-Tight is already predicting retirement in five years, that D-Rail will be on his fifth album – and that one of B-Tight’s seven other children will be picking up the torch.
“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I’ve got 30 years worth of music in front of me,” B-Tight said. “And when he leaves, it’s going to be somebody coming behind him.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>For more information on D-Rail, B-Tight and Flatline Records, visit
“http://www.flatlinerecordsinc.com/”>http://www.flatlinerecordsinc.com
