90’s wiki: Smoothe Da Hustler

Damon Smith, better known as Smoothe Da Hustler, hails from Brownsville, Brooklyn. He came to prominence in the mid-90s thanks to his groundbreaking debut 12″ Broken Language and critically acclaimed underground album Once upon a Time in America. Smoothe is known for his pioneering of the hustler persona and lyrical style in hip hop.

Early Career

Smoothe Da Hustler’s rap career began like many others, performing on mixtapes, local radio and freestyling at shows in the New York area.  In 1994 Smoothe and his manager pressed a self-funded promo single under their own Nexx Level imprint. Smoothe took the single to numerous college radio stations who got behind the track and gave him his first airplay. This created enough buzz to see Smoothe draw major label attention though many A&R’s were unable to understand Smoothe’s depiction of the hustler lifestyle and most thought it unprofitable.

At the time Smith was ghostwriting for future star Foxy Brown who was courting a deal with Def Jam but the legendary hip hop label were only interested in signing a female hustler not the real deal himself. One A&R who could see the potential of the product after attending a number of underground shows was ‘Ill’ Will Fulton, who took the promo to his employers Profile Records, the home of Run DMC at the time.

Broken Language era

Profile Records finally took the plunge and signed Smith, instantly re-releasing his debut Hustlin’ on their label in 1995. However, it was the singles’ b-side that would see Smoothe Da Hustler catapulted to hip hop notoriety, as Broken Language instantly became an underground smash.

Not wanting to waste anytime Profile placed Smoothe in the studio to record his debut album Once Upon a Time in America. At the time of writing the album his long time collaborator and producer D/R Period was working on the M.O.P album To Death and Smoothe was forced to rhyme over empty drum tracks with a promise from D/R that he would create classics once free. Many have noted that the album’s production does have a rushed feel with many unimaginative samples and drum tracks being used more than once on the album. Problems aside, the album was a critical success and underground hit making Smoothe Da Hustler a household name on the global hip hop stage.

Post Profile records

After the success of his first album much was expected of Smoothe’s sophomore album, but due to Profile Records sale to Arista records in 1997 the album never saw the light of day. Rumoured to have heavily featured rising star Big Pun, the reasons for the album being shelved are unknown and are usually put down to the industry cliche ‘label politics’. It is likely that because Arista was owned by major label BMG Group, underground acclaim was no longer a good enough marker of success and Smoothe’s relatively low record sales would have warranted little or no promotion for his second album.

With his second album effectively recorded but without a release date Smoothe’s situation was further complicated by the death of his eldest son’s mother from an aneurysm. The hustler was at a crossroads: keep hustling in the music industry or take a hiatus and concentrate on raising his son. Smoothe maturely chose to raise his son and left the industry for many years. He resurfaced some years later to form the group SMG (Sex, Money and Gunz) with Trigga Tha Gambler and Ice T – who reached out to Smoothe to bring him on tour in 2003. They went on to record an album together, Repossesion in 2004, and still work together today. Smoothe is currently working on new material to be released via his own SMG records following on from his digital release Violenttimes Day, as well as working on a hip hop cartoon entitled Big Wheelz.

Highlights

Broken Language

Fuck Watcha Heard

Murdafest

Hustlin

Selected Discography

Singles

Hustlin / Run (12″) Nexx Level Entertainment 1994

Hustlin’ / Broken Language (12″) Profile Records 1995

Hustler’s Theme / Murdafest (12″) Profile Records 1996

My Crew Can’t Go For That (12″, Promo) Def Jam Recordings 1996

Albums

Once Upon a Time in America 1996 (Profile Records)

Once Upon A Time…

Fuck Whatcha Heard ft Trigger Tha Gambler

Dollar Bill ft D.V Alias Khrist

Glocks On Cock

Broken Language ft Trigger Tha Gambler

Speak My Peace

Neva Die Alone

Food For Thoughts

Family Conflicts

Only Human

Hustler’s Theme

Murdafest ft Trigger Tha Gambler & D.V Alias Khrist

Hustlin’

My Brother My Ace ft Trigger Tha Gambler

Dedication

download Once Upon a Time in America

Full discography

Related Acts

Trigger Tha Gambler

D.V Alias Khrist

D/R Period

Kovon

Ice T

Nexx Level Entertainment

Hill Playaz

Trivia

Trigger Tha Gambler is Smoothe Da Hustler’s younger brother

Smoothe’s mother appears on the track “Family Conflicts” on Once upon a Time in America

Links

smoothedahustler.com

myspace.com/smoothdahustler

References

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Smoothe+Da+Hustler

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/features/id.1351/title.these-are-our-heroes-smoothe-da-hustler

http://www.sixshot.com/interviews/10663/

http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/03/20/19498912.aspx

http://hiphopgame.ihiphop.com/index2.php3?page=smoothedahustler

Popularity: 15% [?]

Edited: August 13th, 2009

1990: The Conscious Rap Boom

1990 saw a spate of conscious rap releases that would influence the lyricism of the next 5 years but is sadly missing from the majority of modern hip hop. Imagine if the biggest artists of the day were rhyming about Allah, black empowerment and Egyptian history instead of whips, tricks and shine and you can catch a glimpse of the conscious rap movements heyday. The majority of artists releasing conscious albums were either members of the Nation of Islam, Nation of Earths and Gods (Five percenters) or closely affiliated with these groups that were considered extremely radical at the time.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Edited: July 23rd, 2009

90’s wiki: K Solo – Tell The World My Name

Kevin Madison aka K-Solo was the harder edge of the EPMD collective The Hit Squad who recorded 2 albums in the early 90’s. His 1990 debut Tell the World My Name was entirely produced by EPMD with Parrish Smith handling the majority of the work but Erick Sermon adding the classic opening track ‘Spellbound’. Vocally Solo was reminiscent of Big Daddy Kane with a high-speed hard delivery that, coupled with his storytelling style, vividly illuminated his adventures in prison, flirtation with crack, racism and of course sexual exploits.

Solo briefly became famous for his ‘Spellbound/Letterman’ style which entailed crafting his rhymes around the spelling out of words to create a delayed reaction punchline as the listener would take an extra second or so to decode the spelled out word.

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Popularity: 67% [?]

Edited: October 8th, 2008

90’s wiki: A Tribe Called Quest – Peoples Instinctive Travels & the Paths of Rhythm

In a time when rappers were either hardcore and gangster or political and militant the Native Tongues collective were neither. Abstract, witty and intelligent is the best way to describe A Tribe Called Quest’s approach to lyricism, with an evidently coherent jazz backdrop that was much less radio friendly than De La and the JB’s, but would leave more of a lasting imprint on hip hop production values of the 90’s. Made up of Phife Dawg, Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and sometime member Jarobi White, A Tribe Called Quest entered the stage with their 1990 debut Peoples Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

Their debut album was full of random rhymes that touched on topics as diverse as safe sex, vegetarianism, wallet loss, as well as odes to the ladies, French hip hop artists and fools. This lyrical lightheartedness gave Tribe a vast appeal which reached out to younger children, the white mainstream and the larger dance community, areas that more militant or hardcore artists could not breach. The fact that a lot of their early audiences didn’t get the lyrical content of a rap album but still chose to enjoy it is a testament to the ear friendly production. This album wasn’t the ear melting stuff of say NWA or Public Enemy but was a mellow full sound that hadn’t been heard from a New York scene which had so far favoured sparse cold production. The warmth of the beats and the varied vocal styles of Phife and Q-Tip make this a classic debut but fortunately for hip hop the best of A Tribe Called Quest was still to come.

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Popularity: 58% [?]

Edited: September 29th, 2008

90’s wiki: Body Conscious!

For a certain type of 90s girl, there was only one look worth rocking. While riot grrls were covering themselves in lipstick and wearing ripped baby doll dresses, hip hop honeys were taking inspiration from the body-con trend of the 80s catwalk and showing of those curves in slick, skin-tight bandage dresses and high-waisted trousers.

Alaia dress and Versace bondage body pics from Decade

The street look borrows from high fashion, but dresses are replaced with cycling shorts and bra tops. From House Party’s Sidney and Sharane to the backing dancers of Hammer and Sir Mix-a-lot, hey even Cindy Crawford, they were all on it. Although sometimes they did look like they were coming from the gym.

Some of our favourite body-con looks from the 90s

It’s definitely a fashion trend that is being revisited at the moment. Herve Leger is the currently celebrity favourite (here) and pop stars from the UK’s Craig David to Flo Rida have bought it back for the noughties:

Trivia

Body-con, which stands for body-conscious – or should that be body confidence? – was first championed by designers such as Azzedine Alaia, Herve Leger and Gianni Versace in the 80s and provided the inspiration for a hot look!

Popularity: 64% [?]

Edited: September 22nd, 2008

90’s wiki: Master Ace – Take a Look Around

Take a Look Around is a genuine rap classic from the most slept on Juice Crew member Masta Ace. Almost entirely produced by Marley Marl, the man who defined the hip hop sound in first years of the 90’s, with 4 tracks handled by Mister Cee, this was one of the tightest albums of 1990. Ace had made his debut on the iconic Juice Crew track ‘The Symphony’ back in ‘88, holding his own alongside heavyweights of the mic Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane and Craig G. Ace was signed to the Marley Marl-fronted Cold Chillin Records and released his first single the following year before following up with his debut album Take a Look Around.

The album is a solid 15 tracks from start to finish featuring no fillers, intros, outros or skits and all being above standard for a 1990 release. The album showcases Masta Ace’s lyrical diversity – being comfortable spittin’ on any topic and vibe seems to come effortlessly to Ace. He steers between battle raps on ‘Aces Wild’ to comedy on ‘Me and the Biz’ through to conscious raps on ‘I Got Ta’ and opens a window into ghetto life on ‘Brooklyn Battles’ and the title track ‘Take a Look Around. The album spawned 4 singles, the most popular being ‘Me and the Biz’- the video for which features Ace controlling a Biz Markie marionette puppet.

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Popularity: 66% [?]

Edited: September 19th, 2008

90’s wiki: The Rise of Compton

1990 saw Compton rise to international fame primarily due to the success of N.W.A and the controversy that constantly surrounded them. Off the back of N.W.A’s notoriety a number of Compton rappers and groups were catapulted into the limelight, many of them associated with the Eazy-E’s Ruthless records, or produced by Dr Dre.

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Popularity: 56% [?]

Edited: September 16th, 2008

90’s wiki: Mike Tyson the baddest man on the planet

By 1990 Mike Tyson was a household name around the world for all the right reasons. Trading the tough streets of Bed Stuy and Brownsville in Brooklyn for the discipline of the boxing gym, Tyson personified the rags to riches story. After being arrested 38 times by the age of 13 Iron Mike inevitably found his way to a juvenile detention centre. Due of his history of violence and anger he was urged to take up boxing while inside to channel his aggression and immediately showed promise. His natural athleticism and boxing ability were shown to legendary trainer Cus D’Amato who pulled him out of juvie and brought him to his Catskills gym.

D’Amato was not only versed in a plethora of little known boxing techniques but was also extremely experienced in dealing with troubled kids, having turned round the lives of many hoodlums including Rocky Graziano and Floyd Patterson who both became world champions. The transformation from street brawler to accomplished amateur highlighted the skills of both fighter and trainer. D’Amato showed the young Tyson how best to use his short stocky frame and negate the reach disadvantage he would invariably suffer throughout his career as a 5″9 heavyweight. During this time Tyson’s mother passed away and he was legally adopted by Cus D’Amato, the only father figure he had known in his life.

Tyson missed out on the chance to represent the US at the Olympics in 1984 but that would soon be forgotten as he turned pro in March 1985 and blazed through 15 fights in that year winning all by knockout, 11 of those coming in the opening round. Unfortunately in November of that year, just days after his 11th win, Cus D’Amato passed away leaving 19 year old Tyson to all intents and purposes orphaned. Determined to fulfill D’Amato’s dream of training another world heavyweight champion, Tyson was straight back in the ring racking up 12 more wins in 1986 before preparing for a November World Title shot against Jamaican Olympian Trevor Berbick.

Berbick had only been champion for 8 months but was a seasoned heavyweight who had previously fought Larry Holmes and had ended the career of Muhammad Ali with his unanimous decision victory over the legend. Tyson’s speed and power were no respecters of records though and he subsequently demolished Berbick, stunning him at the end of the first round before flooring him twice in the second. Tyson was crowned the youngest ever heavyweight champion at just 20 years and 4 months old and stood by his declaration that he wished to fight the worlds best by taking on 2 more champions the following year.

Iron Mike added the WBA belt to his WBC title after beating ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith in his next fight before knocking out former champion Pinklon Thomas. In only his third defence he became the first heavyweight champion in history to hold all 3 titles at once, after a decision victory over IBF champ Tony Tucker. Tyson continued to clear out the division despite his tender age, successfully defending against legend Larry Holmes and top contenders Tubbs, Spinks and Britain’s own favourite Frank Bruno. By the end of the decade however, his troubles outside of the ring were mounting. A failed marriage to Robin Givens, a punch-up with Mitch Green and dismissal of trainers Kevin Rooney and Teddy Atlas left him alienated, alone and under the control of the less than savoury Don King.

The 90’s would continue as the eighties had ended with the controversy and disruption that had begun to shroud his personal life following him into the ring. It seemed his life had come full circle as the taunts and mocking of his high pitched voice and lisp which had drawn him into many streetfights as a child returned, this time coming from a media desperate to find a chink in his armour. Iron Mike would spend the decade between jail cells, comeback fights and ridiculous money making promotions like WWF wrestling. For half a decade he was ‘the baddest man on the planet’, an undisputed champion and icon of invincibility, immortalised in countless video games, TV shows and films. A product of the tough streets and a victim of a cold society he was arguably the last great heavyweight champion.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Edited: September 11th, 2008

90’s wiki: House Party

Back in 1990 hip hop was part Afrocentric education and part fun and vibrancy. House Party definitely falls into the second category. Taking much inspiration from the Spike Lee movies of the era, but without of the preachy tone, this film showed normal black teenagers just out to have some fun – in spite of their over protective parents, schoolyard bullies and police harassment. In other words, this is a rare ‘feel good in the hood’ movie that shows ghetto life doesn’t have to involve guns, drugs and alcohol but shows good people having a good time together.

The action revolves around rap duo Kid ‘n Play (Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin) and their attempts to organise a party at Play’s house whilst his old folks are on holiday. Sounds easy if you don’t take into acccount some comedic bad boys in the form of RnB production powerhouse ‘Full Force’ who will stop at nothing to cut Kid and his oversized high top fro down to size. If that wasn’t enough, Kid also has to contend with his old school ‘Pop’, played to full comedy value by the late Robin Harris. Harris’ portrayal of this role has set somewhat of a blueprint and been imitated by the likes of Bernie Mac and John Witherspoon (who makes a brief appearance as a nosy neighbour).

When the party finally gets started, Martin Lawrence handles the DJing duties whilst Kid n Play engage in a freestyle battle to impress the two female leads Sidney (Tisha Campbell) and Sharane. The defining moment of the film is the 90’s new jack swing dance-off that ensues between Kid n Play and the girls, parodied and mimicked countless times, and easily one of the most enjoyable moments of 90’s cinema. There is a warning about the dangers of drinking and a safe sex message to boot, but in the midst of all the teenage fun its a fleeting moment of parental nagging in a film that is rarely condescending to the viewer.

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Popularity: 86% [?]

Edited: September 9th, 2008

90’s wiki: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air

The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was without doubt a driving force in bringing hip hop from the underground to the mainstream in the 90’s. Taking elements from The Jeffersons, Cosby Show and Different Strokes and coupling them with the infectious personality of young rap star Will Smith, the show was a welcome breath of fresh air when it amazingly premiered on BBC 2 of all channels in the UK in late 1990.  The show is centred on the struggles of streetwise teenager Will, who is uprooted from the ghettos of south Philly to the mansions of Bel Air to live with his rich Uncle Phil and his 3 cousins.

This show embodied the essence of early 90’s hip hop with Will sporting a wardrobe colour matched to the front cover of De La Souls 3 Feet High and Rising, whilst spouting the popular slang of the time. Between Will and best friend and occasional guest star Jazz the unsuspecting audience is slowly introduced to the elements of hip hop; turntablism, beatboxing and break dancing, though Will’s dancing is more Heavy D and the Boyz than Crazy Legs.

Though primarily a family show, the Fresh Prince occasionally touched on more serious topics such as crime, racism and absentee fathers, although a gag was never far away to lighten the tone. By the later series a number of running jokes had been firmly established, Aunt Viv had been replaced, Ashley had grown up and a new family member Nicky had been added but the show was just as popular as ever, avoiding the axe on couple of occasions.

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Popularity: 91% [?]

Edited: September 8th, 2008