Profile - Brooks Buford

Brooks Buford knows a thing or two about a double-wide. He spent his first few years of life living in one. He even wrote a song about one. It makes sense, then, that Brooks is the “irreverent” host of MTV’s newest reality makeover show, “Trailer Fabulous.” CL caught up with the rising star while he was in Fayetteville rehauling a couple of mobile homes and making over its residents, too.

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Brooks’ bio goes something like this: His real name is Jason Brooks. After the stint in the trailer park, his intellectual and artistic parents moved to the ‘burbs. By his early teens, Brooks was into drinking and drugs, and by 17 he was an addict in rehab. While getting sober, he met and befriended Danny Alexander. The two started a rap/rock group, appropriately named Rehab.

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Rehab gained popularity playing at venues like the Masquerade and MJQ, and signed with Sony in 1999. Its debut album, Southern Discomfort, had a hit single, “It Don’t Matter.” Brooks went on to sign a solo deal with So So Def and released Straight Outta Rehab in 2003. His next album, Suspicious Package, will likely be released this fall.

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Brooks is still on the wagon, so his vices these days are coffee, cigarettes and tattoos (he’s got 12 and is carefully contemplating 13).

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Brooks always had a hunch that he’d be doing something that would put him in the spotlight, though he thought it would be breakdancing. He can still nail a 1990 (that’s a one handed spin for those not down with breakdancing lingo).

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Though Brooks now spends most of his time on the road, he still calls the ATL home. If you catch “Trailer Fabulous” — it’s on Wednesday nights at 10 — Brooks’ fuzzed-out logo hat says Atlanta. The crew finally demanded he stop wearing it because they were sick of having to blur it out.