![]() ![]() Smino: Yeah man, you’ve got Long Run, the first half of Amphetamine, and a bunch of other parts of the record. So, it just inspired me to keep going in my music and to make sure that I was saying something that represents my people.Īmmar: Are there specific tracks on blkswn that embody that sense of representation? My biggest tool is my own voice and I was feeling helpless, not being able to show enough people that there was fucked up shit going on, especially since the media wasn’t covering it and there was a state of emergency. Smino: I wouldn’t call myself an activist but when the Ferguson protests were happening I was learning from everything, taking it all in. “My politics is just what matters to the people around me, not what matters to the leaders of the country.”Īmmar: Do you see yourself as an activist as well as an artist? To see that spread around the world to other black people was amazing though I remember I was in London and there was a Black Lives Matter rally and they were saying it there too. I mean, the ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ movement started in my city, it was crazy and very unfortunate. ![]() ![]() I don’t really get into politics, my politics is just what matters to the people around me, not what matters to the leaders of the country. Smino: Not politics, as much as social conditions. One of them had a big stereo in his house and when I was eight or nine I remember going there and listening to Ludacris’s Back for the First Time and I was amazed at how it sounded! How he put that album together, how he rapped the lyrics over the beats, that inspired me to start writing on my own. Smino: My whole family is really musical – my dad plays the piano professionally, as does my sister, and my mum is a singer – so I grew up listening to a lot of soul music, gospel and jazz. I learned to play the drums originally but it was through my friends that I got introduced to hip hop. Ahead of his headline show at London’s Jazz Café, we spoke to Smino about being a figurehead for his hometown, keeping control of his music, and expressing the day to day.Īmmar Kalia: How did you first get into music? Largely produced by his longtime collaborator Monte Booker, the record amps up the soul and funk influences, as well as the lyrical content, tackling everything from amphetamine addiction to coping with grief, police violence on the local community as well as, of course, his appeals to the fairer sex. So followed his debut EPs S!Ck S!Ck S!Ck and blkjptr in 2015, along with a growing fan base captivated by his percussive yet soulful delivery and funk-inflected productions.Įarlier this year Smino released his debut LP, blkswn, a statement of intent from an artist seeking to convey more than just the self-aggrandizing commercial tropes of hip hop. Louis, and living the trying aftermath of Mike Brown’s police shooting in 2014, he felt the need to use his voice and lyrical talent to speak for more than just himself. For Christopher Smith Jr, aka Smino, growing up in Ferguson County, St. Social consciousness often isn’t a choice – it’s a necessity. ![]()
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