Flavor Flav!

You'd think that someone who wears a clock around his neck would never be late, but it's almost 10 minutes past the time Flavor Flav's publicist Greg J told me the rapper would call, and there's still no word from his camp.\nAfter several minutes that seem like hours and nearly jumping out of my seat every time the phone rings, the call I've been waiting for finally comes through. It's Flav.\n"Hey Flavor Flav, what's up?"\n"Not too much, Chris. I'm just hanging out like a coat hanger in a closet right now."\nThrough the phone, Flavor Flav is just as personable, funny and friendly as he comes across on his hit TV show, VH1's "The Flavor of Love," now wrapping up its second season. But the 47-year-old hype man for the highly influential rap group Public Enemy prides himself on that. He says women love him because of his "realness."\nIronically, it was a stint on another VH1 reality show, season three of "The Surreal Life" which brought Flav back to the public eye after a long absence. While filming that show, Flav met met actress Bridgette Nielsen, leading to another reality show, "Strange Love," chronicling their relationship and eventual parting of ways.\n"After things didn't work out with Bridgette Nielsen, we decided to film it as I find my next love," says Flav, describing what lead to the creation of "The Flavor of Love." \nThe show has created a current of interest that is even making waves on the IU campus. His signature clock necklace and viking hat have been spotted on some tailgating Hoosiers full of the man's party spirit, and is expected to also be a Halloween costume craze this year. It's obvious that Flav's 80s style has not kept him frozen in time but made him a retro icon. \nIn the premise of "Flavor of Love," 20 women move into Flav's mansion, vying for his affection, as he dismisses them for various reasons such as gold digging and posing for Internet pornography. Flav gives each woman a nickname such as "Toasteee" or "Payshintz" because of his self-admitted poor memory. In a direct parody of "The Bachelor," Flav presents each woman with a clock at the elimination ceremony rather than a rose, proclaiming "You know what time it is."\n"Time is very important to me and I need to have a girl who understands that," Flav says, explaining the prevalence of clocks in his life.\nSince bursting onto the scene with Public Enemy, Flav is rarely seen on stage or TV without one of his trademark clocks.\n"The clock I've got on right now I've had since 1987," Flav says. "Thirty-six million people have touched it. Some day, it's going to be in the rock and roll hall of fame with all my other things."\nSince the first season debuted in January, "The Flavor of Love" has been a runaway success for VH1. The first season finale was the highest rated program in the channel's history, and reruns of all the episodes are played all hours of the day.\n"I was well-known beforehand, but more people definitely recognize me since the show," Flav says.\nAt one point during the interview, a group of women who passed the car Flav was apparently sitting in screamed in excitement at seeing the rapper in person.\nThe show has been a boon to Flav's popularity. He is currently working on the next Public Enemy album as well as a talk show and animated series. On Oct. 31, his first solo self-titled album will be released. Flav calls it a "collector's item," claiming this will be his only album.\nBut while the contestants on "The Flavor of Love" might adore Flav for his "realness," viewers love the show for the over the top moments, such as in season one when one contestant, Pumkin, spit in the face of another contestant, New York, after being eliminated, nearly leading to an all-out brawl between the two. Flav claims these moments are completely unscripted.\n"It's all real," he says. "The girls don't fight over me. They fight over each other."\nNew York, the runner-up in season one, was brought back midway through the second season and has gained a reputation as the conspirator, pitting contestants against each other and negatively referring to nearly every woman in the house as a "lesbian" at various times. Flav is well aware that New York is viewed as being a little bit off-kilter, but says she's actually worse in person.\n"She's crazier," Flav says. "Her mom's crazy, too. She needs to stop whatever she's taking."\nIn one episode of season two, New York's mother visited the house and faked a terminal illness to try and get New York to leave, then repeatedly told Flav "You're trying to destroy me."\nBut perhaps the most memorable moment in the series came in the first episode of season two when a rather large woman who Flav nicknamed Sumthin defecated on the floor of the mansion.\n"I think there was too much alcohol in her system, and she couldn't control herself," Flav says. "I thought it was a dog at first, but I looked at the poop, and it looked too much like a human's. Then I went up to the bathroom and this gorilla came out of there."\nFlav has had some ups and downs with the women in his life, but if he could have anyone he wanted appear on "The Flavor of Love," he says it would be fellow VH1 star Paris Hilton.\n"I've got a crush on her," he admits.\nSeason one concluded with Flav picking a contestant nicknamed Hoopz, but it was revealed in a reunion special several weeks later that things weren't working out between the two and a second season would begin soon. Right now, we know Flav chose Deelishis as his main squeeze, but if things don't work out there, Flav isn't ruling out the possibility of more "Flavor of Love."\n"There may be a third season if things don't work out with me and the winner of season two," he says. "We'll see"