Miami Tip, AKA Tip Drill, Adds "Reality TV Star" to Her Resumé

From her days as a gravity-defying dancer at Miami’s King of Diamonds to becoming a rapper and hip-hop performer, Miami Tip — the former stripper once known as Tip Drill — can now show off her talents on the small screen.

Love & Hip Hop: Miami will follow the lives of Tip and other local performers such as Trick Daddy and Amara La Negra during its premiere at the beginning of the new year. For lifelong performers like Tip, Love & Hip Hop gives her an opportunity to connect with fans in a new way.

“I really just want to give [my fans] an insight on my personality and my character and how hard I work,” she says. “They can definitely look forward to witnessing that.”

Though Tip lives full-time in Miami now, she moved to the Magic City from New York when she was 10 years old. She says both cities have influenced her as a rapper and a performer, because both regions are known for their distinctive attitudes. As for her music style, she describes it as “New York meets Miami.”

“So I have that hard, aggressive approach, but I have that fun, sexy Miami twist to it,” she says.

Tip became involved in the music scene long before she began rapping in 2012, and she cites Jay-Z, Trina (who will also be on the show), and Uncle Luke as favorite musicians she has followed. Throughout her childhood and even during her time as a dancer, Tip says she was always writing stories and poetry. However, it was not until a terrible accident while dancing in 2012 that Tip was inspired to pursue music as a career.

“After that, I felt like I needed a Plan B in life,” she says. “I couldn’t just have one main focus — I needed a fallback. So ever since then, I’ve just been going hard at it.”

Now Tip devotes her days to working on her music and connecting with fans via social media such as Instagram. She says she has been showing more of her personality on her social media accounts lately, but she hopes Love & Hip Hop will help her continue to connect with fans and promote her music. The transition from dancing to rapping was difficult, she says, but it has gotten easier.

“I definitely appreciate it because I’m just a young black woman trying to do something positive with my life, trying to do something different,” she says. “I truly appreciate the love, and if you can get love from home, you can get love from anywhere.”

Love & Hip Hop: Miami. Premieres 9 p.m. January 1 on VH1.