D Smoke On Rhythm + Flow, Cardi B, Inglewood High, Last Supper, Kendrick Lamar, & More

Hollywood Journal

D Smoke speaks on winning Rhythm & Flow, creating Last Supper, teases new music Inglewood High & book, speaking Spanish, opening for Kendrick Lamar, and more.

Transcript

00:00What's up guys, this is Dee Smoke,

00:02the winner of Rhythm and Flow on Netflix,

00:04and right now I'm gonna try to match the judges

00:06to their lyrics.

00:07You can go see Weezy for the wordplay,

00:09Jeezy for the wordplay,

00:10Kanyuzy for diversity,

00:11and Me for controversy.

00:12All my verses picture perfect,

00:13only split to separate purpose.

00:14You ain't living what you're kicking in, you're worthless.

00:17Um, I think it's Cardi.

00:19No, I'm just kidding, that's T.I.

00:21We should have a date, where?

00:22At the Lamborghini store.

00:23I'm kinda scary, hard to read.

00:25I'm like a Ouija boy.

00:27Cardi?

00:28I hope every soda you drink is already shaken up.

00:30I hope your dreams dry like a raisin in a baking sun.

00:33That's Chance the Rapper.

00:35I just remembered the lyricism on that, it was crazy.

00:37I'm the opposite of moderate,

00:38immaculately polished with the spirit of a hustler

00:40and the swagger of a college kid.

00:42Like, that's T.I.

00:44Y'all can't ask me these ones, I know all these songs.

00:46I'm the hottest in the streets,

00:47know you probably heard of me.

00:48Got a bag and fix my teeth.

00:50This is Cardi here.

00:51Dang, we about to ace this test, watch out now.

00:54There's something in the,

00:55There's something in the water, something wrong,

00:59something don't feel right,

01:01something going on, but we strong.

01:03That's me.

01:06This is D Smoke, the winner of Rhythm and Flow on Netflix,

01:09and this is Hollywood Life.

01:11D Smoke, where you from, mama?

01:13From Englewood.

01:14Nah, where you from, mama?

01:16I'm from Englewood.

01:24That's West Coast culture happening live

01:28in front of the entire world.

01:30So he asked me where I was from,

01:31I knew what he was talking about the first time,

01:33and I answered honestly,

01:35and then he asked me again,

01:37and I answered the same way.

01:38You know, the question didn't change,

01:40so the answer didn't change.

01:41There is no right or wrong answer.

01:42Snoop is one of the biggest advocates for peace

01:46across rival gangs.

01:48You know, red and blue flag tied together.

01:50Like, he's one of the main people pushing, you know,

01:53that cross-collaborative agenda.

01:55If I was a gang member and I said that,

01:58then he would be like,

01:58okay, represent your, you know, where you from.

02:01But it's a real moment where, you know,

02:03a man looks another man in the eyes and intestine

02:06to see where you're coming from, you know?

02:08I think the only thing that's the same between this shows

02:11and other shows is parts of the structure, right?

02:15You do have, you know, at the end of the competition,

02:18people line up and then someone's eliminated.

02:20So that part is the same,

02:21but everything in between is different.

02:23It's the first time it's happening on Netflix,

02:25so it's on a network where the way stories are told

02:28is different, it's a lot more up close.

02:30Even down to how it's shot is just very cinematic,

02:33very personal.

02:34It being uncut, you allow people to just be their true selves.

02:37So to have very current artists be the judges,

02:40it's a whole different type of feedback.

02:42It's not from the outside looking in,

02:44it's from, you know, the current space and music.

02:47Oh man, it's the greatest feeling in the world.

02:50Like a lot of my students, while the show was going on,

02:53they were posting moments and they were in their living rooms,

02:56like recording the TV, like there's Mr. Ferris, right?

02:58To see my students, former students celebrate like that.

03:01It was just the best feeling.

03:03Like I never, I never hid the fact that I did music

03:06from my students.

03:07Like I would, sometimes when there was an activity going on,

03:10where it's a writing activity, it was like timed writing.

03:13You got five minutes to just journal.

03:15You know, I put on one of my songs, you know,

03:16something mellow that, you know, I knew,

03:19I wouldn't announce it like,

03:20hey, I want y'all to listen to my song.

03:21I would just play it.

03:22And afterwards they would be,

03:23you could tell they were looking around like,

03:25that's him, you know?

03:26So, but they always supported the fact that I did music.

03:30And that was inspiring to them long before the show, so.

03:35The part that I struggled with the most was the early rounds.

03:39Primarily because I'm a person that likes my space.

03:42I like to have a clear mind when it comes into approaching

03:46my creativity.

03:47When there are just so many rappers in the room,

03:50that just felt like a,

03:52it felt like an insane asylum at times.

03:54Like it was, it was just so many people spitting different

03:57verses and they have this hunger, you know, rightfully so,

04:00you know, they, it's a competitive element to this.

04:03And you can just sense that urgency,

04:05but that's not the place I like to create from.

04:07So as the numbers started to narrow down,

04:10then I felt like, okay, I'm more in my own zone.

04:12I'm in my space and I can do what I do best.

04:15Me and the other contestants are in contact regularly.

04:18We got a group chat where we clown, we have a good time.

04:21We celebrate, we, we stay connected.

04:24We support each other.

04:25We met each other's family, you know?

04:26So I check up on, you know,

04:28my niece's Flawless's daughters, you know, the bros,

04:31you know, London B's daughter, you know?

04:33So, it's a lot of love.

04:35I am in contact with the judges.

04:37I'm still waiting to hear from Cardi.

04:39I think she was waiting for the show to air,

04:41but I'm in contact with the judges

04:43and there are some collaborations in the works, so.

04:47My favorite parts from Last Supper.

04:51I feel like the beginning and the end.

04:53The middle part was the necessary evil.

04:54When the beat first came in after I played the piano, that was like,

04:58okay, if we're gonna win it, we gotta take it.

05:00When I, if you saw the moment when I went in with Soundwave,

05:03it was like I wanted to stomp, you know?

05:05So I really came in to stomp, you know?

05:07Both literally and figuratively.

05:09My choreography was stomp, you know?

05:12So the middle part was a necessary evil.

05:15I enjoyed it, but my favorite parts and what I like to do in my music is to take people home.

05:20So I feel like I grew up with a piano in the home and so me starting off at the piano was very personal.

05:26It was something that I feel like people would connect with in a different way.

05:30The first time I wrote a Spanish verse, I actually was featured on a song of my brother, Davion, and it was called International Girl.

05:38So with it being about a relationship with the international girl, I was like, well, let me write a verse in Spanish.

05:43What surprised me is that people who don't know what you're saying, they still love the fact that you're approaching it from that perspective.

05:50You know, I think people now are more ready for globally friendly music.

05:55Maybe in the 90s, they would have tried to compartmentalize it.

05:59So I started doing that probably in my early 20s and I did it at a show.

06:04One year we opened up for Kendrick Lamar.

06:06I had a verse on a song called Overkill.

06:09I did the whole first verse in English, so they weren't quite ready.

06:12So we set them up and then the second verse, I said,

06:15And the crowd went nuts, you know, and the crowd was primarily Latino, you know.

06:25That's when I knew like it was, we were on to something.

06:28It's been inspiring my work, my family primarily, as well as my experience teaching, my teaching experience

06:36because you get so many stories that you come across when you're in the classroom.

06:43I feel like you can't be successful teaching unless you're open to learning from the students.

06:49And most of that, most of the learning you'll get is their lived experience.

06:52So when I'm teaching students, when I'm reflecting on my own experience and what the commonalities are,

06:59the best way to express that is in my music.

07:02So that's a big inspiration.

07:06I would be lying if I didn't say there isn't a financial element to measuring success.

07:10There are some things I want to be able to do, but major success is being impactful,

07:15impacting the community that I come from, being able to have an impact in my family,

07:22and even just reaching people through my art.

07:24You know, a lot of artists have, you know, incredible reach to their constituency, if we're going to use T.I.'s word.

07:33So I personally want to use that to inspire people and impact communities in a real way.

07:42If I could produce music for a film franchise, it would be my own film.

07:47I have a book that's going to come out.

07:50It's a novel, and it's called Vivid Isaiah.

07:53So Vivid Isaiah, if you had to put Straight Outta Compton next to The Matrix, you have Vivid Isaiah.

08:01So it's about a kid in Inglewood who has this vivid imagination,

08:05imagination, and he gets an invitation to this parallel universe because he's brave.

08:10And the way he deals with all the day-to-day struggles of growing up in Inglewood,

08:15it just demonstrates a lot of courage.

08:17So next thing you know, he puts on his headphones, he goes to sleep, and then when he wakes up, he's somewhere else.

08:23So that's as much as I'll give you, but it's afro-futuristic, it's action-packed, it's thoughtful,

08:31and it's something that I'm super proud of and look forward to releasing.

08:36My goals for 2020, I definitely want a tour, so that's an immediate goal.

08:41Right now we're about to release a project on October 24th, and it's called Inglewood High.

08:47It's a seven-song EP, that's an ode to my city and an ode to my high school that I went to and I also taught at.

08:55And then we're going to be releasing a 15-song project that will remain unnamed, along with many videos.

09:03We're going to drop nearly a video a month, you know, that's our goal, so that's something we can look forward to.

09:09So you're busy.

09:11I'm busy, I'm busy, and we're definitely touring as well, so we want to hit all of these places that are reaching out.

09:18Now because of the show, so many people are like, hey man, when are you over here?

09:22You know, and it's both inside and outside the country, you know, Netflix is a global platform, so we've got a lot of stops to make.

09:32All right, it was good hanging with you all.

09:34This is DSmoke, you can follow me on all social networking platforms at DSmoke7.

09:39And be sure to check out Englewood High on all streaming platforms.

09:44Englewood.

09:45And of course, I'mBaekコ know.

09:49All right, thanks.

09:51I'mGGind!

09:53And as I said in Gala, a man.

09:54I'm grave.

09:55All right, thanks.

09:56All right, let's go to our activity.

09:57Largly.

09:57And there just...

09:58And all right.

09:59And as you can follow me.

09:59I want to go to school and go to school.

10:01And you can go to school Instagrams online.

10:02And I'll kind of go to school and tuttockment.

10:03I'll just go to school in school.

10:04And I'm part of my class, you can go to school and meet you all right now.

10:08We'll be happy and I'll have some legal ideas.

10:09They're just gonna go to school and I'll have sports track, you'll do it i'll be nice.

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