D Smoke sits down with Hard Knock TV’s Nick Huff Barili for an in-depth interview at Truth Studios.
Watch part 1 and 2 below.
In Episode 1, D Smoke and Nick talk about Smoke’s childhood, growing up in Inglewood and how his Mom’s musical and church background influenced him and his brothers to get involved in music at an early age. As the interview continues, D Smoke gives us insight into his creative process, breaks down some of his lyrics and shares how he worked with artist The Game on song “Cross On Jesus Back”. Smoke recollects that earlier in his career he and his brothers wrote for other artists, including Usher, Mary J Blige, Jaheim, Pussycat Dolls, Ginuwine and others.
In Episode 2, D Smoke and Nick talk about Smoke learning from his students and how its helped him get his bars up. D Smoke share personal stories of experiences in his class room including a story of one of his students coming to class high and throwing up gang signs on other students and then on Smoke. At first Smoke reacted by trying to overpower the situation but then he learned that showing vulnerability actually worked better in the end. D Smoke says that growing up in Inglewood he tried to ignore the drama around him to not get caught up in trouble but ones he became a teacher it was his job to know what was going on. His interactions with students inspired him to write about the darker side of Inglewood including on the song Lil Red. Smoke finds a balance between talking about what is going on in the streets without glorifying the violence saying that there is nothing glorious about what is going on because its a trap. As the conversation with Nick and Smoke continues, Smoke shares why he never gave up on music through the ups and downs and says that Hip Hop doesn’t just belong to the youth. Giving insight to one of his favorite books “7 habits of highly effective people”, Smoke says that there is a whole market open for him to make music that is different that what is currently being played on the radio. Episode 2 covers a lot more topics including “Producer of the Year” an album that D Smoke put out in the early 2000’s when he was getting his Diddy and DJ Khaled on!
In Episode 3, D Smoke and Nick talk about D Smoke rapping in Spanish, Black and Brown relations,winning Netflix show “Rhythm + Flow”, forgetting his lines to “When The Kids Pull Up” performance, Kendrick Lamar comparisons, working with Soundwave, ‘Run the Subtitles’ series, working with T.I on new music, new project D Smoke is dropping in January and much more!
In Episode 4, D Smoke and Nick talk about Nipsey Hussle, whom D Smoke wanted to collaborate with. RIP Nipsey. Nick says that Smoke’s energy reminds him of Nip. As the conversation continues, Nick ask Smoke about the dream feature fans have been asking for with Smoke working with Kendrick and J Cole.
In Episode 5, D Smoke jumps behind the piano and blesses us with an impromptu performance showcasing that he can do it all, as he plays the piano, raps and sings.
