Roberto Flores (born September 1975), better known as Lil Rob, is a Mexican American (Chicano) record producer & rap artist from San Diego, California, United States. He was born and raised in the La Colonia area of Eden Gardens, a Hispanic neighborhood near Solana Beach.
Lil Rob debuted as an artist in 1992, selling as many as 90,000 units for each independent CD he recorded. blank">Lil Rob second interview with LatinRapper.com, August 7, 2005 The number Twelve Eighteen, which is tattooed on Lil Rob's arms, represent the numeric value of the letters L and R, respectively, which are Lil Rob's initials. The number was used by Lil Rob during his days as a graffiti tagger. In 1994 at the age of 18, Lil Rob's chin was shattered when he was shot in the jaw. Over time Lil Rob renounced his gang affiliations and called for "Brown Pride" and unity between all Chicanos.
In 2002, Rob was signed to Upstairs Records after having been recording under numerous independent labels beforehand; he would stay with the label in later years. In 2005, he found commercial success with the release of Twelve Eighteen, Pt. 1, which had been in regular rotation on radio stations outside of the West Coast due to the _singles "Summer Nights", and "Bring Out The Freak In You". Currently, Lil Rob's newest single is "Do It", he is also working on his next album, Twelve Eighteen, Pt. 2. Lil Rob also had a song on the mixtape Top Doggs.
On June 29, 2007, Lil Rob made his very first appearance overseas in Okinawa, Japan.