Plies was born Algernod Lanier Washington on July 1, 1976, in Fort Myers, Florida and grew up in East Dunbar, Florida. While at Fort Myers Senior High School, he played in the football team, was crowned Homecoming King, and was named the "Best Dressed" student of his class. He attended Miami University for a year and played in its basketball team, then transferred to the University of Central Florida for sophomore year and dropped out. In the late 1990s, Plies and his brother Ronnell Lawrence Lavatte, also known as Big Gates, established an independent record label, Big Gates Records. Although Plies initially refused to rap, after a demonstration for one of his artists, Big Gates decided to keep Plies' verse on the track "Tell Dem Krackers Dat". Big Gates and Plies promoted the single and traveled many times to Miami, which eventually led to a deal for Plies on Slip-n-Slide Records. Plies's girlfriend Brandy Lacole Lyons gave birth to a son, Nijier Lanier Washington, at the University Community Hospital in Tampa, Florida on October 20, 2003. After signing to Slip-n-Slide in 2004, Plies released several mixtapes. The Real Testament was released in August 2007. His debut single "Shawty" featuring T-Pain topped the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks chart and peaked at number nine on the Hot 100. "Hypnotized", the second single, featured Akon, and peaked at number three on the Rap chart and 14 on the Hot 100. The third single was "I Am the Club". On February 29, 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album Gold for having sold over 500,000 units; five days later the RIAA did the same for singles "Shawty" and "Hypnotized". Plies made a guest performance on Fat Joe's single "Ain't Sayin' Nuthin" from The Elephant in the Room in early 2008. Definition of Real, his second album, was released in June 2008, 10 months after releasing his first album. The lead single was "Bust It Baby Pt. 2" featuring Ne-Yo, which peaked at number two on both the Hot Rap Tracks and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts and number seven on the Hot 100.[6] The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling over 214,000 copies its first week.[8] The next single was "Please Excuse My Hands", featuring Jamie Foxx and The-Dream. RIAA certified Gold "Bust It Baby" on September 17 and Definition of Real October 14. Plies released his third album, Da REAList, in December 2008, six months after the release of his second album. The first official single off this album is "Put It on Ya", featuring Chris J. The album debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and has sold over 114,000 copies. The second single is "Want It, Need It", featuring Ashanti. He did a guest performance on Ludacris's single "Nasty Girl" from Ludacris's album Theater of the Mind. David Jeffries of allmusic described Plies's debut album The Real Testament as tracks covering both gang life and love. Similarly, Jeffries described the lyrical content of Da REAList as having "a spectrum that runs from irresponsible gun talk to irresponsible sex talk". A profile of Plies in the December 2008 issue of Vibe magazine observed that Plies constantly referred to himself as "real" in his music and album titles. However, it pointed out that the word "has virtually synonymous with 'criminal' and, in some cases, almost superseded the idea of being able to actually rap". In July 2008, hip hop website HipHopDX published an investigative report suggesting that Plies exaggerated his criminal background.