Flex & Hated

Who is Flex & Hated?

Flex & Hated is an American pop music production team consisting of members Flex and Hated, both born in Wilmington, Delaware. The duo, who are also brothers, started as a rap group known as Cipha in the mid-90s; they released several local records, which caught the attention of Vibe magazine, "40 Acres and Mule" Records, Def Jam, and Violator management. When a chance meeting with a member of the group Prophet Jones led to Flex&Hated's first placement on the 2001 Motown-released album Prophet Jones, the duo's focus changed from rapping–writing to music production.

Flex&Hated were fortunate enough to learn under producers, such as DJ Clark Kent, who managed the group early on, to Grammy Award-winning producer Rockwilder, whom the group met in 2003. Before placing records, Flex&Hated paid dues, by being in the studio and working with or submitting tracks for many artists, including 50 Cent, Lil' Kim, Onyx, Black Rob, Carl Thomas, and many more.

The production team's biggest break came in 2007; after meeting Dawn Richard of Danity Kane, the duo began to compile a catalog of songs with Dawn over their pop club style tracks, the result, "Lights Out" a track off the #1 Billboard debuting album Welcome to the Dollhouse, by Danity Kane. "Lights Out" was the third highest downloaded song from the Welcome to the Dollhouse LP and charted as #1 on Billboard's hot bubbling under 100 singles chart on April 5, 2008. "Lights Out" also reached #26 on Billboard's Hot Digital chart and #78 on Billboard's Pop 100 chart in 2008.