Ace Hood

Florida rapper Ace Hood built his reputation through major-label albums and singles that climbed the charts, while also flooding the market with dozens of mixtapes and street albums. A bold and relentless emcee, he channels personal hardships and relentless drive into his lyrics, yet never hesitates to celebrate his affinity for luxury vehicles and physical indulgence. Before reaching age twenty he joined DJ Khaled’s We the Best Music imprint and went on to deliver four well-received projects, among them the 2013 Top Five-charting Trials & Tribulations, which spawned the platinum-certified “Bugatti” featuring Future and Rick Ross. After becoming an independent artist in 2016, he kept issuing mixtapes until unveiling the more mature, R&B-tinged Mr. Hood in 2020; that effort was followed thematically by the full-length M.I.N.D. in 2022 and B.O.D.Y. in 2023.

Born Antoine McColister in Port St. Lucie, he grew up under his mother’s care in Deerfield Beach, roughly twenty miles north of Miami. A football injury during tenth grade ended any prospect of a professional athletic career and turned his attention entirely to rap. At seventeen he began cutting tracks for the local Dollaz n Dealz label and issued early street singles, among them 2006’s “M.O.E.,” short for “Money Over Everything.” In November of the following year he secured a meeting with DJ Khaled at 99 JAMZ radio and handed over his demo; weeks later the Miami tastemaker signed the nineteen-year-old as the first artist on his newly launched We the Best Music, which quickly arranged distribution through Def Jam.

Ace Hood’s Def Jam debut, the Runners-produced “Cash Flow” featuring Rick Ross and hook specialist T-Pain, hit South Florida airwaves in early 2008 and became a regional sensation. After additional mixtapes and guest spots, he dropped his first album, Gutta, in summer 2008. Ruthless arrived the next year and, like its predecessor, reached number five on Billboard’s R&B albums chart. Two years later the more ambitious Blood Sweat & Tears entered the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 and carried the successful singles “Hustle Hard” and “Body 2 Body” with Chris Brown. Trials & Tribulations followed in 2013, coinciding with Ace Hood’s move to Birdman’s Cash Money label; propelled by “Bugatti” featuring Future and Rick Ross—which cracked the Hot 100 Top 40 and earned platinum status—the album climbed to number four on the Billboard 200.

He continued rolling out entries in the Starvation and Body Bag mixtape series. In 2016 Ace Hood departed We the Best to release material through his own Hood Nation imprint. Trust the Process surfaced in 2017, and Trust the Process II: Undefeated arrived on his thirtieth birthday in 2018. Body Bag 5 appeared the following year. After marrying his longtime girlfriend in early 2020, he issued Mr. Hood, which included Jacquees on the single “12 O’Clock.” His sixth studio album, M.I.N.D. (Memories Inside Never Die), arrived in early 2022 and featured Killer Mike on “Greatness.” The more collaborative B.O.D.Y. followed in 2023 with appearances from Benny the Butcher and Jackboy.