I started performing some of those and got some pretty good feedback.
While his name might not be an attention grabber, Mr. Smith’s music definitely is. Always coming up with creative ways to market his product, Mr. Smith gained a sizeable fanbase in 2008 with his singles “White T” and “Breathe.” What’s your background in music? I grew up in the church and played piano in my youth choir. I was in the marching band in high school. I started listening to Hip Hop in my high school years. I went to Indiana University and got more involved in the music scene there. A lot of my friends that I played ball with in Florida and Atlanta, you know, everyone in football wants to get involved with music in some way. When I moved to Tampa I met [my manager] Matt. He was very ambitious in the music scene and he introduced me to a few people. One thing led to another and I was trying to be the next P Diddy. I started my own record label and the main act I was working with at the time was Acafool. What happened with football? I played four years in the league and got diagnosed with a neck injury when I was in camp with the Colts. I played a year in Tampa, a year with Carolina, a year with St. Louis, and when I got diagnosed with the neck condition I was sick that I couldn’t play ball anymore. I stopped playing football and actually started getting into martial arts. So tell me about your music career so far. What are some moments that stand out? I’ve always been kinda behind the scenes, like when I started working with Acafool and working records and building relationships. We were pushing records since like ’05 and “Hatablockas” ended up being a song that everybody liked. I was over in Europe when the song took off. They were all telling me about it and when I finally came back I saw exactly how big the song was. How did you transition from the behind the scenes role into more of an artist role? We were in a position where record labels were noticing us but they didn’t want to give us a good deal for various reasons. Once I realized what some of the reasons were, I decided to start writing some of my own songs. 22 // OZONE MAG
Is the “White T” song still top priority or are you pushing something else? In my mind it’s still a priority just as a song to introduce myself to the fans so they can look at the song, look at the concept behind the song, and it’s something catchy too. I recorded it last year but in order to work a song you really need to have a lot of things in place. In my mind, the best part of a song is the visual that goes along with it. There’s not a lot of people that would take a staple in Hip Hop, which is a white tee, and turn it into a play on words and then try and market it that way. I wanted to get the visual out there as much as the song itself. Why did you decide to go by the name Mr. Smith and not Young Smith or Lil Smith, something more rap friendly? Other than the obvious reason of it being my government name, I always looked at the music industry as a business. Anytime I’ve done anything business related, whether it was buying a house or purchasing a car, I was always addressed as Mr. Smith. I figured if I was gonna approach this thing as a business, I’d go ahead and use my business name. What other songs and projects do you have coming out? I have a song called “Breathe” that’s been taking off on the internet. You’ll probably see a lot of young ladies doing what they do on Youtube [to that song]. I got approached by an internet company called Shakeit.com last year that featured the song and before I knew it I started getting videos sent to me on Myspace and seeing videos all over Youtube. It’s been interesting to say the least. Some are better than others, some of them drop it like it’s hot, some drop it like it’s lukewarm, but as long as they do it to one of my songs I don’t mind. I plan on trying to moving up to Atlanta and take the song a little more seriously than I have been. I’m supposed to go up there and do something with the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. We’ve always had a real good relationship with them. Which is more competitive, football or the music industry? I’d definitely have to say the music business is more competitive than football. There’s a lot of people trying to get their name out there and come up with the next hot song.