Antoine McColister (born May 11, 1988), better known by his stage name Ace Hood, is an American rapper. He was born in Port St. Lucie, Florida and raised in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He is signed to DJ Khaled's label We the Best Music Group and was formerly signed to Def Jam Recordings and Cash Money Records.[1] His song "Top of the World", from his debut studio album Gutta, was featured in the basketball simulation game, NBA 2K10. He has released four studio albums with his most successful being his last two albums, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Trials & Tribulations which was released on July 16, 2013. He is best known for the hit singles "Hustle Hard" and "Bugatti". Early life[edit] Ace Hood was born in Port St. Lucie, Florida, on May 11, 1988 and was raised by his mother with his younger cousin Ty Barton, Jr. in Deerfield Beach, part of Broward County. He graduated from Deerfield Beach High School. Following a football injury in the 10th grade, and after realizing he wouldn't be able to go pro, the Broward County native began to seriously consider rapping as a career. So Hood teamed up with a local group called Dollaz & Dealz and released a single titled "M.O.E." in 2006. He also began promoting himself via open mic events and talent shows around town.[1][2] Musical career[edit] Early career[edit] In 2007, he met DJ Khaled outside the office of the WEDR 99 Jamz (located at the South Florida) radio station, where they mainly played the hip hop and R&B music. After Ace gave Khaled a autobiography and his demo tape, Khaled asked Ace to do a freestyle over the instrumental of his song "I'm So Hood" (which during at that time, the song was released as his single from his second album, We the Best), and later signed Hood to his We the Best Music Group label.[3] Ace was named as a artist, along with several others, to be placed on the Freshmen of '09 by XXL magazine.[4] 2008: Gutta[edit] His first album, Gutta, was released in 2008. Singles included "Cash Flow" featuring T-Pain and Rick Ross, and "Ride" featuring Trey Songz. Hood also released mixtapes called Ace Won't Fold and All Bets On Ace. He made a guest performance among several rappers on DJ Khaled's single "Out Here Grindin'", also featuring Akon, Rick Ross, Plies, Lil Boosie and Trick Daddy, which peaked at #38 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Ace Hood's biggest hit.[3] It is from Khaled's third studio album We Global, and was eventually certified gold by the RIAA. Ace Hood appeared on Wildstyle Radio on WUAG 103.1FM in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 7, 2008, to promote his album, Gutta, along with DJ Khaled.[5] The album debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200, selling 25,000 copies its first week. 2009: Ruthless[edit] On June 30, 2009, seven months later, Ace Hood released his second album, titled Ruthless, once again on Def Jam. The album's first single was "Overtime", which was produced by The Runners and featured Akon and T-Pain. The album's second single is "Loco Wit The Cake", which was produced by Schife, of the Palm Beach County Karbeen Mafia. The album's guest lists includes Rick Ross, Ludacris, Jazmine Sullivan, The-Dream, Birdman, and Lloyd. The album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200, selling 20,000 copies its first week. 2011: Blood, Sweat, & Tears[edit] Ace Hood confirmed that his third album will be called, Blood, Sweat & Tears. It was released on August 9, 2011. The first official single, "Hustle Hard", became Ace's highest charting solo single, peaking at #60 on the Billboard 100. The second official single is "Go 'N' Get It". Both tracks are produced by Lex Luger. The third single is "Body 2 Body" featuring Chris Brown and the song is produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. It peaked at #65 on the Hot 100. The album features artists like T-Pain, Yo Gotti, Kevin Cossom, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne. The album debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200, selling 26,000 copies, becoming the rapper's most successful album so far. He promoted the album with his first concert tour, the Hustle Hard Tour.[6] He also appeared on three tracks from DJ Khaled's fifth studio album, We the Best Forever: "I'm Thuggin'", "Future", and the "Welcome to My Hood (Remix)". 2012: Signing to Cash Money[edit] Ace started the year 2012 by collaborating with Cash Money Records artist Bow Wow on a song called "We Going Hard". He will be appearing on Maybach Music's Self Made Vol. 2 album. Birdman & DJ Khaled signed Ace Hood and We The Best Music Group to Cash Money Records. Now DJ Khaled's label We The Best Music Group has combined with YMCMB family. Ace will be recording his fourth studio album under We The Best & Cash Money. He has also made numerous guest appearances on tracks by other huge recording artists since he was signed, like Talib Kweli, Jadakiss & Brisco. But the most noticed tracks he made a guest appearance on was "The Drill" by Game, also featuring Meek Mill, which appears on his California Republic. Ace Hood and Game have collaborated once before on a song called Different People for the Starvation mixtape. 2013: Trials & Tribulations[edit] Ace Hood in 2013 For his debut single on the We The Best & Cash Money label, he reunited with Trey Songz after 4 years, to make the early 2000s styled love single known as I Need Your Love. The song is produced by Ben Billionz. Ace started the year by releasing his mixtape Starvation 2 on January 10, 2013. The mixtape features guest appearances from Meek Mill, French Montana and Plies.[7] On January 16, 2013, Ace Hood announced his fourth studio album titled Trials & Tribulations and released the first single from the album titled "Bugatti" featuring Future and Rick Ross. The song is produced by Mike WiLL Made It.[8] On February 6, 2013, the music video was released for "Bugatti" featuring Future and Rick Ross.[9] The song made a hot-shot debut on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at #42. "Bugatti" has since peaked at #33 on the Hot 100, becoming Ace Hood's most successful single to date as a lead artist, and his first top 40 hit since "Out Here Grindin'". On February 19, 2013, it was announced that Trials & Tribulations would be released on July 16, 2013.[10] On April 7, 2013, While stopping by Power 99 Philly to talk to Mina SayWhat about his "Trials and Tribulations" album, Ace Hood opens up about his family and deciding to go a different route with this album. He has showed an interest in working with Anthony Hamilton & John Legend on the album. He also plans to get Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar for the album too.[11] On May 6, 2013, Ace released the remix to "Bugatti" featuring all star guests DJ Khaled, Future, Meek Mill, T.I., Wiz Khalifa, Birdman, French Montana and 2 Chainz. On June 5, 2013, Ace Hood released the second single called "We Outchea" featuring his Cash Money label-mate Lil Wayne. On June 26, 2013, the final track listing was revealed revealing guest appearances on the album from Meek Mill, Anthony Hamilton, Chris Brown and Betty Wright.[12] 2014-present: Starvation 3 & Body Bag 3[edit] Ace Hood began the year with the release of his Starvation 3 mixtape on January 17. The free project included features from We The Best label-mates Vado and Mavado, as well as Betty Wright and Kevin Cossom. Production for the mixtape came courtesy of Cool & Dre, The Renegades, StreetRunner, and The Beat Bully, among others.[13] Since then, he's been dropping off freestyles left and right, most of which was gathered up for the third installment of Ace's Body Bag mixtape series called Beast Mix. Body Bag 3 was released on August 29.[14] Two months after that, Ace Hood would team up with Rich Homie Quan for a return single titled "We Don't".[15] Personal life[edit] Ace Hood and his longtime girlfriend, Shanice Tyria Sarratt, welcomed twin girls, Lyric and Sailor Blu McColister into the world on May 25, 2011. Lyric, however, unfortunately died shortly after birth due to health complications