Tip the Artist

Artist Bio

My life starts out on a farm in a very small town called Black Creek, North Carolina....

The population is literally 747.

What's interesting about the house I live in is that it used to be a trailer. My parents, in the beginning, didn't have much money. They stayed in a trailer park in a small town called Lucama for about 8 years with my brother and sister. Around 19 years of age, my dad started a roofing business that still today is successful. He and my mom bought the 10 acre farm on which they currently reside today and moved the trailer to it (yes we was redneck okray).

I remember coming home from school one day and there was a porch being built on the front of our trailer. Then I walked in and the cabinets were being destroyed and my dad was tearing down the walls (I was like, I don't know what had happened...but imma take my stuffed Barney and go play outside). It only took about 5 months for my dad to completely build a two-story house around the trailer (so basically our hallway is really long because it was once a trailer hallway, and everything else was restored and built around it).

My life moves on with me playing sports, such as baseball, basketball, and soccer, when I actually wanted to play (and yassss I was really good). I had plenty of friends as a child which slowly faded out as I got older and older. It was weird because I fit in with everyone, but it just seemed like I never actually had any friends. Also, the older I got, the more and more I fell in love with sports. I mainly played basketball and baseball at school but I took it further and would play on traveling teams which played at different tournaments around the country.

As I moved into high school, I decided I wanted to take basketball more seriously, so I went to a private school in Wilson County, NC called Greenfield School. The basketball team there was very good and I knew it would take me to play in college. For the most part but I never had any real friends outside of the basketball team. My senior year is when I discovered the sport of volleyball and I FELL IN LOVE!

I joined a men's volleyball team about a 3 hours drive from my home and would travel every weekend just to play. About 3 months into playing, I was asked to join Junior Olympic Volleyball team which traveled around the country and played in different tournaments. I played for about a year and a half and then got offered a scholarship to play in college.

At that point, my life turned to me not being satisfied... I was sure why I wasn't satisfied because I thought my goal was to play sports in college, but I soon realized that I wanted to entertain. Whether entertaining meant singing, acting, or doing hand stands on the side of the road... I just wanted to do it in front of an audience.

I tried out for American Idol and things were going pretty good; I made it past the first round and then the second round. The final round came (this round determined if I would make it to Hollywood) and I MADE IT! Then 2 weeks later I caught one of the worst cases of mono and couldn't go -_-.

Believe it or not the next year I tried out again... made it to Hollywood and the same damn thing happened. Lord I thought my life was over, but I look back now and realize it just wasn't meant to happen for me in that moment. Right after catching mono the second time... Vine came around. My friend Melody Willoughby called me one day and said

"DOWNLOAD THIS APP CALLED VINE. YOU'LL BE GOOD AT IT."
I was like B*tch I don't got time for no video app. But low and behold, I downloaded it and it became my life haha. I'm really glad I came to find Vine...I get to entertain a large audience and it has opened up countless opportunities in my career in the entertainment business.

In all, I wanted to say I love you guys and appreciate everything y'all have done! #waterbugarmy