Flavor Flav, reality-show star and member of Public Enemy, was supposed to shake the Seattle rap scene over the weekend with tracks from his soon-to-be-released first solo album, "Rise-Fall-Rise." But when he arrived Saturday at The Premier, a 1,500-person venue, fewer than 50 were there to greet him. He was underwhelmed, to say the least. But he had plenty of time for a one-on-one chat, so we took the opportunity to catch up with him.

On your new solo album — what took you so long?

Flav: Every year that I've been trying to come out with it, something has been getting in my way. Now there's nothing getting in my way. The world has been waiting for it for a long time, so why not? My album is not like everybody else's rap album. It's hitting all age ranges, from kids to grandmothers.

What about a new Public Enemy album?

Flav: There is a P.E. album coming out and it's going to be out when me and Chuck D complete it. Right now, I'm in the middle of finishing up mine, so I put a stop to the Public Enemy project.

The Library of Congress recently chose Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" as one of the 50 recorded works to be enshrined for preservation.

Flav: Just to be one of the 50 is an honor. Not only that, but I was looking in Rolling Stone and they had the 500 greatest albums of all times, and we were number 48. God is good.

The critics hated your reality show "Strange Love" — what did you get out of doing that?

Flav: I've got more people to love. It was one of my dreams: getting on TV. It gave me a new wide range of audience so that's more people to be good to. Every time I go through airports, the main thing I'm hearing is "Foofy Foofy" (the nickname Brigitte Nielsen called him on the show).

You're OK with people calling you that?

Flav: Honestly, it does bother me. That's the name that I'm used to hearing from Brigitte, but when I hear it come out of males' mouths, it kills me. I prefer "Flav," but Brigitte, yeah, she really labeled me with that one.

What's Brigitte doing now?

Flav: She's at home with her fiancé, her kids, the dog, the bird — she's living her life. That's my friend that I met on a TV show. You know, it's a TV romance, but after that, it's back to life, back to reality.

You're telling me your TV romance was real?

Flav: Yeah, everything was for real. Wasn't nothing fake, trust me. EVERYTHING WAS REAL.

Are you disappointed in today's small turnout?

Flav: Ain't nobody down there, so I might as well go perform in front of — what? About 14 people? [Laughs.] Hey, look, I'm here, B! I'm just going to go down and do my thing! I don't care if there's two people in the house: Flav is gonna rock — watch!"

Kriss Chaumont: kchamont@seattletimes.com