Today we’d like to introduce Rem B. Smooth.
Hi Rem, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, let’s briefly walk you through how Rem B. Smooth got to where he is today.
From prison cells to penthouses Rem B. Smooth possesses the ultimate redemption story, a not-too-distant past of pain, prison, and his plight to recreate himself as human and artist. A childhood friend turned states evidence would turn against his supplier wearing a wire implicating Smooth in a number of drug deals. A drug bust that would land Rem B. Smooth a 5-to-99-year prison sentence. Paroled to the state he found love with a girl that motivated him to rap early on. Calling Rem daily she would ask “What did you write today?” If his response was “nothing” she would quickly click, saying to him “I don’t want to be responsible for keeping you from your destiny goodbye!” Hours later sometimes only minutes he would call back spitting the raps he had just crafted exclusively for her. Much of that same content we hear today as Rem B. Smooth often expresses his desires and distrust in songs filled with lust and heartache. Facing betrayal yet again, the girl that inspired him to be great would conspire against Rem. Sending him back to prison on a case that would eventually be dismissed with a verdict of not guilty. Driven by passion, poetically persistent, we are gifted with the artful interpretations of an otherwise traumatic experience, love songs to some, horror stories to others. Resilient in nature, the redeeming qualities of Rem B. offer reflection and resolution, hope in a world turned rotten.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth roads don’t make skilled drivers, right? Peaceful nations don’t create skillful warriors, wartime does that. And the purity of gold’s proven when tested in fire. So absolutely there’ve been struggles along the way, heartbreak, and prison for sure are some of those burdens I’ve carried. But my daughter Bellas Rose was on her death bed prior to me coming home from prison, I made parole that same week that she was dying, doctors at that time thought she might not make it, there was an emergency surgery that my grandmother couldn’t opt her in because she wasn’t her legal guardian while I was incarcerated, also I believe my grandmother was too scared to make the decision. When I was incarcerated, my grandmother would write me letters saying, “Your daughters’ legs don’t work, they’re like little doll legs.” I couldn’t fully understand what she meant at first, and I hadn’t had the opportunity to visit a doctor with my daughter just yet. Well, my daughter wasn’t eating either, like literally no food, no bottle, no milk, no nothing! That’s what put my baby girl on her deathbed, my grandmother was in her late 70s she was too old to be put in that position to care for my baby girl, I should’ve been free, so I could give my daughter the love and care she needed. Anyways I made parole and that week I signed that paper for emergency surgery, they cut in my baby’s body, I watched them cut her open, put feeding tubes in her, IV’s all that, but God saved her life, he set me free and saved my precious baby girls life. That was my main focus just keeping her alive, and God did that! Doctors used to say she would never walk, because of the condition she was born with, but I never accepted that, and I never let her accept it either. Today (years later and number of operations performed) she’s walking, running, dancing, and playing, and doing all the things they said she would never be able to do, she’s a real living breathing miracle. That really motivated me to make sure I never put myself in a situation for us to be separated ever again. So, you asked about struggles, sure they exist, but Gods shown me so much, that my focus has always been the solution. Like sure we’ve got problems and we’re going to have problems, that’s fine, that’s life, but what are our solutions? You know you don’t have to accept defeat. If you can keep faith, and remain hopeful when times are tough, you’ll either figure out a way, or God will create a way when there seems to be no way at all. I used to hate that cold steel, those babred-wired fences, nothing but brick walls concrete floors, and metal beds and doors. I hated every time I had to sign a paper for all of my daughters’ surgeries that read “In case of death” you have any idea how hard is for a daddy to sign a paper like that for his little girl? But you have to believe there’s a God and that he’s already prepared a way, he wants what’s best for you, you’ve got to keep faith when it’s no sign it sight. And I don’t mean to sound all preachy, but this is who I am.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My father used to tell me this story that somewhere around 3 years old he heard me singing a song he had never heard before; it was simple song about a boy wanting a toy Batman and in the song if he got the Batman he wanted he would become Batman. My pops wanted to know where I heard that song, he says my only reply was “I don’t know I heard it in my head.” Well, my pops went and bought me that Batman I sang about so guess what? I started creating and singing songs and poems every time I wanted something, Power Rangers, video games, Pokémon Cards, all that lol. My pops would buy the stuff too, whatever I wrote about lol, that encouraged me a lot! And then you know that girl I talked about earlier that would hang up on me every day if I hadn’t wrote a song, or recited a rap for her over the phone, well that would really have me going, you know nothing motivates a man more than a woman. I only started writing songs for her in the first place because I didn’t have no money to take her out nowhere so we would walk the park every day because that’s all I could afford to do at the time lol, (walk and rap) I’d recite poetry for her, freestyle sometimes, and you know just write for her, We went to college together, she paid for me to go, she didn’t want me in the streets. She tried to get our schedule the same, but my classes ended an hour earlier than hers, every day during that hour I’d write a song for her and leave it on the windshield of her Cadillac and dip every day. So, when you ask what do I specialize in, I would say romanticizing everything lol, but “writing” mostly. I write all my own material. I don’t want or need no one to tell my story for me, I’m an artist at heart, you know rapper, writer, singer, lover lol. I love writing and recording, it’s what I do, it soothes my soul. What am I most known for? I’d say not being afraid to be vulnerable in my music, I’m ok with not being the cool guy all the time, not always having it all together all the time. and you know that’s the thing, everyone on the outside looking in is looking like I’ve always got it all together, Rem B. always drives the nicest car, Rem B. always has all the money, Rem B. always knows exactly what to do when it’s a problem, that Rem B. always has the prettiest woman in the room (well that part they got right), that Rem B, always knows the right words to say, but the whole time I’m over here still trying to put it together and keep it together you know? It’s like they looking at me like man I wish had his life, his woman, his this, his that, man Rem so smooth with it all, whole time I’m telling myself, “Man you got it, you gon figure it out, just be cool Rem, just be you Rem… “Rem B. Smooth” and that’s what really sets me apart is I’m me and you’re You, but I’m not afraid to be me anymore. The other day I was doing an interview and one of the people on my team was like “Here I brought you some Cuban links chains and some jewelry to wear so you look better on camera.” I said with a quickness “NO! If I don’t got it right now, I don’t want it! I don’t need it. These beads I’m wearing on my neck and wrist right now, my daughter made them for me, that’s more important to me than trying to fit in any box or image anybody else want. I like me, I’m comfortable in my own skin, I’m more than enough, that Cuban link don’t create no real value for me, and if it do for them, I don’t want to be around them no way! I just want to be me.”
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
My favorite book, unequivocally “The Holy Bible” after that a book titled “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran, all of Langston Hughes poem books, specifically his “Selected Poems”, “David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell, “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill, I could probably go forever on books, I love reading. I like Comic books too, don’t judge me but “Archie” one of my favorites. Podcast the “Oh We Can’t Be Real” love that podcast for real. I like DJ Akademiks, I know a lot of rappers don’t like him, but I like him, I think he’s funny, and he doesn’t choose sides, he just tells the truth, I think that’s why rappers don’t like him, a lot of people don’t like the truth always, but whatever.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hyperfollow.com/rembsmooth
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rembsmooth/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RemBSmooth
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/rembsmooth
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/smoothlifeforever/featured
Image Credits
ZayMogul
JayPutYouOn
