Held off on posting this until there was more reliable confirmation than social media, but Tim Smooth has passed away after a two-plus-year battle with cancer.
Smooth was an early innovator of hip hop in New Orleans, first releasing a 12” “I Gotsta Have It” on Dallas’s YO! Records (also home to Mannie Fresh and Gregory D), and ghost writing for Big Boy as Playboy Sha-Burnke, before moving over to Rap-A-Lot for his debut, Straight Up Drivin’ Em in 1994. In 1998, he followed up his debut with the excellent, Da Franchise Player on the incredibly underrated West Bank imprint, Mobo Records.
Over the ensuing decade, Smooth’s output was sporadic — an LP on Camped Out Records in 1999, and The Invisable Man in 2004. After his diagnosis in 2009, a fund was set up to help defray Smooth’s growing medical expenses, in addition to a couple of benefit shows.
Recently, Smooth was able to make a rare appearance on the mic with his protege, Mystikal, during a House of Blues show last year, marking his final (public) performance.
R.I.P. to a southern rap icon.
-SM
Tim Smooth “I Gotsta Have It”
Month: July 2011
PROJECT PAT – I PLAY DOPE BOY
From the new Loud Pack album in stores now.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
After a 15-year absence, Bebe and Cece Winans have returned with a new album called Still, a remarkable album which bridges the gap between gospel and R & B music. With a contemporary production style that would be at home on mainstream urban radio, Bebe and Cece address both love and appreciation for God (“Grace”) and fulfilling love between husbands and wives (“Still”, “Close to You”). “Things” warns about the proper place of material goods in the world, and “Reason to Dance” makes it very hard not to move, while the delightful, reggae-tinged “He Can Handle It” reminds us that no problem or disaster is too big for God. With Still, Bebe and Cece Winans have largely avoided the sound of traditional gospel, but the message of trust in God and love for God and others comes through loud and clear. A masterful work indeed.
If there is a music that is the essence of Memphis, it is blues. Jazz came up the river from New Orleans, of course, gospel had a foothold here, rock and roll was born when the blues was taken up by white kids who had been raised on hillbilly music. Later Memphis would be known for soul. But through it all, blues has been Memphis’ one constant, no matter what other changes might occur, and even a soul label like Stax had a formidable roster of blues artists.
And in discussing the album Bluesfinger from Memphis’ Daddy Mack Blues Band, the mention of Stax Records is appropriate, for the spirit and influence of Stax hovers lovingly over nearly every track. “Mailman”, the second track on the album shows a stylistic affinity with long-time Stax bluesman Albert King, while the title track is a reworking of the Bar-Kays’ legendary “Soulfinger”, retitled to emphasize the blues nature of the band and the tune itself. Other fine-crafted blues tunes deal with hard financial time (“Great Recession Blues”), the difficult life on the road for blues musicians (“Long Hard Road”) or standard themes of love and desire (“Can’t Make It Without Your Love”, “If You Got It”). The final track “Always Want You” leaves the Memphis sonic landscape for that of New Orleans, showing the style of blues from Louisiana that helped give birth to the genre known as “swamp pop.” Bluesfinger makes few concessions to current trends or popular tastes, but for fans of true Memphis soul and blues and the sounds of classic Stax, this new album is a dream come true.
I drove to Jackson, Tennessee on Friday, to see if I could find a place for our company to promote and sell our compact discs now that FYE has closed there, but I learned quickly that there are no stores selling CDs there, not even a flea market or corner store. So after a peanut butter mocha latte from Green Frog Coffee and a burger from Hardee’s, I headed back to Memphis.
Live Performances by Hustler E & Quietus Khan (by TexasFamilyEnt) My road dog Quietus Khan from Waco. Check out his album “Patience” in stores now, or on iTunes.
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
