Netflix’s hip-hop competition, Rhythm + Flow, has concluded and the show, along with judges T.I., Cardi B, and Chance the Rapper, have produced a winner. Inglewood, CA native, D Smoke, blew the competition away in an impressive feat of lyricism throughout the entire competition. In his first project since winning the show, and a cool $250,000, D Smoke released a 7-track EP Inglewood High, paying tribute to the school he went to as both a student and a teacher.
D Smoke was one of the early favorites in the competition seamlessly flowing back and fourth between English and Spanish in his initial audition. D Smoke stood out over the next couple of rounds, during the cypher and battle, but not nearly as much as he did when the challenges turned to creating actual songs. Once the challenges started to involve studio work, D Smoke absolutely blew the competition away, and for good reason. Before the competition, D Smoke had spent a fair amount of time in the studio.
As it would turn out, D Smoke comes from a musical family. His mother taught him to play the piano at the age of 6. Him and two of his brothers were signed to DreamWorks as a musical group when they were kids. His younger brother is TDE artist SiR, who brought him on tour with Miguel. All of that and even more family ties with musical legends lead up to D Smoke giving a flawless performance throughout the competition and into the finale.
Even with the release of Inglewood High in the last quarter of 2019, D Smoke has plans to release another project in January 2020. He says the project is already finished and will have some visuals to compliment it. D Smoke also spilled the beans about plans on working with all three of the Rhythm + Flow judges, already having been in the studio with T.I.
I’ve got Inglewood High on repeat and I still can’t wait for D Smoke to drop more music. I guess that makes me one of your stereotypical simple-minded music fans. *Shrugs*
“No shortcuts, unless you want short checks. Quitters worry ’bout what mission they gon’ abort next”
Audio Dope 