Exclusive | Matthew Drayton, grandson of Flavor Flav, has eyes on pro lacrosse career while making my own legacy

Flavor Flav’s grandson goes to his own beat.Freeport’s Matthew Drayton is shining on the lacrosse field without a need for any family name-dropping, but he shares similar larger-than-life dreams that his Long Island-born grandpa achieved while rapping with Public Enemy and beyond.“He does wear a clock — and I’m fortunate for him to be my grandfather,” the midfielder for Hampton University told The Post.“But I’m making my own legacy…and I want to play professionally,” Drayton added before flying to Las Vegas to party with Flavor Flav and the gold medal-winning U.S.women’s Olympic hockey team.The 20-year-old honed his gift for lax in high school, setting a single-season points record for the Red Devils with 74 during his senior year in 2023.Grandpa Flav — a fellow Freeport alum and football player who was then known as William Jonathan Drayton Jr.

— came back to see Matthew score his crowning goal.“He’s very grateful that I’m playing lacrosse, and he’s seeing the journey that I’m on.But he always saw me as a football player,” laughed Matthew, who was also a talented wide receiver in high school.Drayton keeps his lineage secret and hardly speaks about who his grandfather is as a way of making his own, nepotism-free mark on the athletic world.“He’s a hype man, he’s a rock star, but that’s something right now I’m not trying to achieve,” said Drayton, who emphasized his drive to play professionally.He didn’t even mention the connection to the Hampton team staff, who only found out when one of Drayton’s former coaches called them.Getting to the Virginia school has been quite the journey, as Hampton is Drayton’s third team since graduating from Freeport.He started at St.

Thomas Aquinas College, then returned to Nassau Community College before transferring on scholarship to his current HBCU for the 2026 season.Playing with the Lions back on Long Island helped unleash the beast in Drayton, who was part of their nationa...